MAN, 



MORAL AND PHYSICAL: 

OR THE 

INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ON 

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



BY THE 

Eev. JOSEPH H. JONES, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 



Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. 

'Aduvarov, 7caxo)<z (pw/rfi iyoba-qz, 
M-q ou xal GcofJLa abzfj auvoiauv. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 
606 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1861. 




The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, hy 

JOSEPH H. JONES, 
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Connection between the Material and Spiritual 
parts in Man — David's language concerning his fear- 
ful and wonderful make, supported by the researches of 
physiology — The connection between the body and soul 
of man as inexplicable as the mystery of the Trinity — 
We know nothing of the substance of which either is 
composed — The attempts of science to explain these 
ultimate facts a failure — Much that is written concerning 
the soul no more than speculation — Remark of Dr. Aber- 
crombie — We know only a few facts in relation to either 
mind or matter — Nervous system, the medium of com- 
munication between them — The subject blends with all 
that conduces to the enjoyment and usefulness of life — 
What is proposed in the present treatise — A book of the 
kind called for by the exigencies of the Church — Nu- 
merous works exhibit the subject in its pathological 
bearings, or as a department of physiology — Intended to 
be a portable tract for Christians of unequal and fluctu- 
ating experience — The nerves, how they are the channels 



4 



CONTENTS. 



of communication between the mind and the body — 
Their branches or ramifications have a sort of omnipre- 
sence in the animal fabric — Sympathy and sympathetic 
nerve — What constitutes the nervous system — No per- 
ceptible change in the size, colour, or shape of the nerves 
when diseased — Nature of the nervous force — Not iden- 
tical with electricity — How the communion between the 
brain, spinal marrow, and nerves is effected, we do not 
know — Not necessary to our happiness to know the 
essence of mind and matter — The morbid results of the 
union of the two, called " nervous," a penalty for this 
abuse of the blessings of civilized life — Nervous diseases 
little known among savages — Medicine not extensively 
cultivated among the ancients — Less occasion for the 
study and practice — How far was the great age of man, 
originally, the result of physical causes — Dr. Cheyne's 
opinion of the effect of luxurious, intemperate, and licen- 
tious habits — The records of prisons and almshouses — 
Idiotic in a Massachusetts' Charity — Juvenile delin- 
quents at Parkhurst, England — Remark of Mr. Cole- 
ridge. Pages 25 — 35. 

I. The Sacred Writings — The comparative silence of 
the Scriptures on the subject easily accounted for — 
Modern discoveries of physiology not found in the Bible, 
but exemplifications of their truth in the experience and 
exercises of the religious — The case of Saul — of David, 
as exhibited in many of his psalms — Of the disciples in 
the garden of Gethsemane — The Apostle Paul — Quota- 
tions from serious minded heathen by the Fathers — 
Cicero on human nature — Mixture of Christianity and 
Persian philosophy in the system of the Manicheans of 
the third century. Pages 35 — 39. 



CONTENTS. 



5 



II. The Testimony of Science — Connection between 
the material and spiritual parts implied in the abuses of 
science — Made the basis of materialism under the form 
of cranioscopy, phrenology, &c. — The system of Law- 
rence — The human frame made a barrel-organ — Such 
sentiments at variance with sound science — Discoveries 
concerning the whole internal apparatus of the body. 
Pages 39—43. 

The Brain — Soldier at the battle of Waterloo — A British 
captain — Patient of Sir Astley Cooper — of Dr. Cald- 
well — Size of the human brain — of Lord Byron's — Baron 
Cuvier's — of Bonaparte's — Case of Dean Swift — Conceit 
of some physiologists — of Descartes — We do not know 
how the power of thought is originated. Pages 43 — 48. 

The Stomach — Its connection with the mind — Appetite 
affected by the states of the mind — King Lear — Dr. 
Brigham — Cardinal Woolsey and Henry VIII. — The 
psalmist David — The stomach reacts upon the mind — 
Dyspepsia supposed to be a disease of the brain — Aris- 
totle and the hypochondriacs of his day. Pages 48 — 51. 

The Lungs and Heart — Affected by the brain. Pages 
51, 52. 

The Spleen — The use of this spongy viscus — Opinions of 
Dr. G-ood and Archdeacon Paley — Remarks of a lady of 
genius and accomplishments on the subject of hepatic 
influence. Pages 52, 53. 

The Liver — The uses of this organ — Its influence on 
the temperament, mental functions, &c. — The story of 
Tityus — Version of Lucretius, Hippocrates, G-alen, Are- 
tseus — Their use of the term "melancholy." Pages 
53—58. 

Love — Power of the passion — Antiochus and Stratonice. 
Page 58. 



6 



CONTENTS. 



Hope — Its connection with the success of surgical opera- 
tions and the results of medicine — Battle of Mincio, 
in 1859 — The French, Sardinians, and Austrians — 
Patient of Dr. Rush — Parke, the traveller. Pages 
58—61. 

Fear — Experiment in Russia on four murderers — Exemp- 
tion of the inmates of Cherry Hill prison from cholera 
during its prevalence — Immunity of physicians from 
attacks of disease — Curative efficacy of fear — -Cases 
mentioned by Drs. Batchelder, Rush, and Boerhaave — 
Prevention of the monomania called by Dr. Moore the 
" fashionable apology for murder" — Case of a man in 
New Hampshire — -The effect of the teachings of Brous- 
sais — Case of Dr. Hunter — Corvisart's lectures on the 
heart, at Paris — Opinion of Testa — -Disease of the heart 
common in times of political agitation — France at the 
time of the Revolution — -Case recorded in the French 
Journal of Medicine — Hair on half the head of a patient 
in Pennsylvania Hospital whitened by fear — Whole head 
of Marie Antoinette made white by the same cause — 
Case of a Sepoy of the Bengal army mentioned in the 
London Medical Times, 1858 — Of the young man 
attempting to rob an eagle's nest — The young gambler 
at San Francisco. Pages 61 — 68. 

Grief — Description of it by Father Chrysostom — Melanc- 
thon — Philip V. of Spain — Dr. Zimmermann's opinion 
of the cause of his death — Dr. Johnson — Metaphorical 
expression, "broken heart," sometimes pathologically 
correct. Pages 68, 69. 

J oy — A woman in the city of New York — Cases of Sopho- 
cles, Chilo, Juventius, Talma, and Fouquet — A man in 
Richmond, Virginia — The door-keeper of Congress in 
1777. Pages 69, 70. 



CONTENTS. 



7 



Chagrin, or Shame — Story told by the Rev. Daniel 
Baker. Pages 70—72. 

Physical effects of a morbid imitative Sympathy, 
and of Imagination — Rev. Dr. Davidson's History of 
the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky — His account of 
the "bodily exercises" which attended revivals of reli- 
gion — The falling, rolling, running, dancing, barking, 
and jerking exercises — Account of the Jerks — Bodily 
exercises in Ireland — Account of Rev. Dr. Macnaugh- 
ton — Power of imagination exemplified in the records of 
empiricism — "Metallic tractors" — Wooden tractors of 
Dr. Haygarth — -Dr. Woodhouse and nitrous oxide — Bar- 
tholini, a physician of Copenhagen, 1616 — Dr. Franciscus 
Borri, of Milan — Case of a Neapolitan merchant men- 
tioned by Glregorius Leti in his history of the Duke 
D'Ossuna — Seldon's "Table-Talk" — Case of a gentleman 
cured by a card wrapped in taffeta — The reflected in- 
fluences of the mind and the body too little understood — 
The subject a branch of Moral Therapeutics of great 
importance to those who are charged with the health 
of either the body or the soul. Pages 71 — 82. 

III. Christian Experience — Religious frames closely 
allied to what is called the "constitution" — Idiosyncra- 
sies of nature not merged in grace — Remark of the 
astrologers concerning Cyrus — Example of Simon Peter — 
of Paul and J ohn — of Melancthon — of Martin Luther — ■ 
Rev. Timothy Rogers — Christianity made to suffer from 
the physical sufferings of its professors — Their spiritual 
fluctuations produced by physical causes — Rev. Dr. J. 
R. McDuff— Dr. Francia— Sir Woodbine Parish— Effect 
of the North wind in Buenos Ayres — Of the East wind 
on Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander — Case mentioned by 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn — Case of Rev. Mr. Cecil — 
Rev. Dr. James Hall, of North Carolina — A venerable 
clergyman lately deceased — Dean Milner — Richard Bax- 
ter — Dr. Payson — David Brainerd, and the poet Cowper. 
Pages 82—111. 



CHAPTER II. 

Uses of Knowledge on the subject — Remark of Rev. 
Dr. A. Alexander concerning yonng preachers — Rev. 
Mr. Greenham's sentiments. Pages L12 — 115. 

Doctrine — Subject profitable for — President Edwards' 
remarks concerning Brainerd — Case of Dr. Rush — His 
Essay on the Influence of Physical Causes on the Moral 
Faculty — Rev. Thomas Boston — His "Crook in the 
Lot" — Dr. Alexander's opinion of the work — Extract 
from a preacher's diary — Case of Rev. Dr. Thomas 
Scott — of Rev. Andrew Fuller — of Dr. Madan and Cow- 
per — Censure of physicians by the Secretary of the 
Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris. Pages 115 — 121. 

Charity — Subject profitable for — The melancholy claim 
our condolence — Are not to be treated with levity or 
ridicule — Dr. John Cheyne's description of nervous dis- 
eases — The sufferings which they cause inconceivable to 
any who do not know them by experience — Such suf- 
ferers not to be rebuked with severity — Rev. Mr. Dod — 
Rev. Timothy Rogers — The power of kind words. Pages 
121—127. 

Useful for Reproof and Correction — It explodes the 
popular error of ascribing certain disordered states of 



CONTENTS. 



9 



the mind to the influence of religion — Testimony of 
Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander — Insane monks in France 
before the Revolution — Mental disorder caused by epi- 
demical delusions — Dr. George Moore, member of the 
Royal College of Physicians in London — His opinion on 
the alleged influences of religion in producing insanity — 
Of Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green — Of Doctors Abercrombie, 
Burrowes, John Cheyne, and Combe — Dr. James John- 
son's remark on the subject — Patient of Dr. Kirkbride 
in the Pennsylvania Hospital — Four cases of mental dis- 
order within the sphere of the author's pastoral expe- 
rience — The mistake of imputing to Satanic agency what 
is dependent on bodily disease — Case of the wife of 
Rev. John Newton — Case of John Bunyan — of Martin 
Luther — Opinion of Richard Baxter — Injurious influ- 
ence on the mind ascribed to Calvinism — Opinion of a 
writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica — of Esquirol — 
Macaulay — Haley's insinuation in relation to Cowper 
unwarranted — Judicious remark of Dr. Cheyne — Case of 
an injured wife in London. Pages 127 — 146. 
Use for Consolation — Doctrine of physical influences 
liable to be perverted — It suggests many questions not 
to be solved by referring them to conscience — Case of a 
young man preparing for the ministry — Of others who 
had made whimsical vows — How far the exercises of 
Christians in their morbid states are moral, a very per- 
plexing question — Moral qualities hereditary — Opinion 
of Dr. Rush — An innate tendency to evil not an apology 
for yielding to the inclination — How the doctrine is a 
source of relief — Exclamations of a soul in giving vent 
to its spiritual anguish — Case presented at the noonday 
prayer-meeting in Philadelphia, 1859 — Case of a clergy- 
man in New England — Gloominess consistent with a re- 



10 



CONTENTS. 



generate state — An opinion from the highest medical 
authority — Observation of Mr. Pearson in his life of 
Mr. Hay — The Saviour's declaration — Payson's Biogra- 
phy — Private diaries of Christians — Error in publishing 
Cowper's during the period of his gloomy aberration — 
The doctrine of physical influences not to be used as an 
excuse for wilful delinquency — If rightly considered, 
may minister relief and make us watchful — Extract from 
Mason's Spiritual Treasury. Pages 146 — 161. 



CHAPTER III. 

Temptations of Desponding Christians — Reproof of 
the Apostle James — Morbid physical influences often 
erroneously ascribed to Satan. Pages 162, 163. 

Christians tempted to believe that they have 
committed the sin against the holy grhost — 
Opinions of Father Austin, of the fourth century, con- 
cerning this sin — Six opinions of the schoolmen of the 
Middle Ages — Twenty-six of others — of Calvin — Armi- 
nius — Dr. Chalmers — These fears may be indications 
only of imperfect bodily health — Mr. Kemper — A young 
man twelve years under the impression that he had com- 
mitted this sin — Dr. Ridgley's opinion — Rev. Daniel 
Baker's case. Pages 163 — 169. 

Tempted to adopt a false standard op Duty, and 

ambiguous evidences op a regenerate state 

Like the Jews, they look for " signs" — Many distressed 
or misled by the sudden occurrence to their mind of an 
" alarming text of Scripture" — Case of Mr. Lackington — 
Others tempted to trust in "dreams" — The character of 
our dreams depends much on our physical condition — 



CONTENTS. 



11 



Case of Baron Trenck — of Condorcet — Coleridge — Presi- 
dent Edwards — Not denied that Grod may reveal Himself 
through supernatural dreams — Case of a young lady in 
England — Cases mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie — Shak- 
speare's theory — Queen Mab. Pages 169 — 177. 

Christians of a nervous temperament make too 
much op Religious Frames — Mr. Brownlow North — 
Case of a female mentioned by him — Example of Mrs. 
Hawkes — Rev. J. Newton's remark — Letter of Rev. 
Mr. Cecil — Rev. Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, England. 
Pages 177—182. 

Mental Introspection — Remark of Rev. Mr. Spencer — 
Indulging in melancholy meditation does no good — Dr. 
Chalmers' letter to Mr. Anderson. Pages 182 — 185. 

Temptation to "make an idol of comport" — Obser- 
vations of Dr. Harris — Many mistake an abatement of 
comfort for its removal — Christians often make the same 
mistake as did the sons of Zebedee — Extract from Wil- 
liam Mason. Pages 185—189. 

Temptation to Despair — The climax of morbid spiritual 
disquiet — in most cases evidently the result of bodily 
disease — Apt to be promoted and nurtured by perverted 
views of truth — Some morbid Christians afraid to pray — 
Others fear that they have eaten and drunk damnation 
to themselves — Case of an interesting female — Distress 
caused by endeavouring to harmonize the decrees of Grod 
and his foreknowledge with free agency — Such cases 
closely analogous to the temptations of those who imagine 
themselves guilty of the unpardonable sin — Persons 
exposed to this temptation are apt to neglect the means 
of grace — Despair never made a human being better — 
Remarkable case mentioned by the Rev. Mr. Spencer. 
Pages 189—196. 



12 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Counsels to the Troubled and Desponding — Book 
not written for medical men — Why the subject of this 
volume not more frequently treated in later times — Pro- 
minency given it in the older English writers — Remark 
of Dr. Cheyne on the ignorance of many religious men 
of the influence of physical causes on their spiritual 
enjoyment. Pages 197 — 199. 

Desponding Christians should ascertain the cause 
op their Religious Disquietude — Baxter's opinion — 
Should not chide themselves for faults which are charge- 
able to bodily disease — Counsel on this subject attended 
with more or less danger — Many of our sorrows of soul 
retributory, and we are only made to possess the iniquities 
of our youth — The subject guarded against perversion — 
Remark of Dr. A. Alexander — Case mentioned by Mr. 
Douglass, of Cavers — Some predisposed to think that 
their gloom proceeds from a culpable cause — Inquiries 
into our personal state should be pursued diligently — 
Despondency may be produced by false views of religion, 
or it may cause them — Not always easy to determine 
which is cause and which effect — A good rule for guiding 
the judgment — Religious vapours. Pages 199 — 205. 

The desponding should avail themselves of judi- 
cious Medical Advice — Case of Dr. Rush — Baxter's 
counsel — What a well instructed physician can do — 
Every physician not competent to treat the cases of the 
desponding — Physicians often betray a culpable igno- 
rance of the reciprocating relationship between body and 
mind — Book of the heart — Sentiments of an eminent 
lecturer in a medical school — Advice of Mr. Rogers — 
Change in the character of diseases in later years — 



CONTENTS. 



13 



Nervous diseases the most numerous— Sydenham's esti- 
mate of fevers at the close of the seventeenth century; 
Dr. Cheyne's of nervous disorders; Dr. Trotter's — 
Deaths in England during 1856 — No opinion expressed 
as to the accuracy of these computations — They show 
that the subject of nervous disorders importunately 
demands the attention of physicians — A morbid mental 
state often removed by a drug — Case of a lady in Phila- 
delphia — Another mentioned by Rev. M. B. Hope, M.D. — 
The poet Dry den — Descartes — Plutarch's saying, Not 
tamper with drugs — Case of Rousseau. Pages 205 — 219. 

The desponding should seek suitable Society — 
Remark of Mr. Locke — Story of Caesar — Proverb of 
Solomon — Often good to compare exercises — Hard to 
disabuse the mind of the desponding of their erroneous 
opinions concerning their state — Remark of Mr. Rogers — 
Mr. Robert Bruce of Edinburgh relieved after having 
been twenty years in terror of conscience — Such sufferers 
do not receive sufficient sympathy — Captain Benjamin 
Wickes of Philadelphia, and Rev. Joseph Eastburn — 
Cowper and the Unwins — One of four cardinal rules — 
Company of cheerful Christians recommended to the 
melancholy — Avoid that of the gloomy — Dr. Hufeland's 
opinion — Counsel of Dr. Everard Mayn waring in his 
Tutela Sanitatis — Advice of Seneca — Teachings of St. 
Paul — Compare our state with that of others in a con- 
dition far less desirable — Two cases mentioned by Dr. 
Hall — a lady helpless by palsy — Archdeacon Paley on 
the goodness of Grod — Digestion aided by laughter — 
Solomon on cheerfulness. Pages 220 — 230. 

Those who would enjoy Spiritual comport should 
be Temperate — Dr. Johnson's opinion of water — Hip- 
pocrates — Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy — Dr. Rush 
2 



14 



CONTENTS. 



on the effect of diet on the moral faculties — Dr. Paris 
on animal food — Dr. McNish, of Glasgow — The effect of 
living solely on beef — Hon. C. A. Murray — Dr. Arbuth- 
not on vegetable regimen — Payson's excessive absti- 
nence — Nervous disease caused by excess — Dr. Combe's 
opinion — An eminent physician of London on the effects 
of the luxurious habits of the people — Persons subject 
to nervous depression should give special attention to the 
subject of dietetic economy — The spiritual man should 
keep his body under — How far a healthy appetite may 
be indulged — Dr. Holland's three rules — Remarks of 
Dr. Hall — of Dr. J. Johnson — His rule for regulating 
the appetite — President Edwards — Latin distich. Pages 
230—241. 

The desponding should be habitually occupied — 
The mind should be employed — Diseases often caused 
and increased by habitually thinking of them — The phi- 
losopher Kant — A man retiring from business — Quota- 
tion from Cecil — Persons not made more religious by a 
constant thinking on religion — The pious man should 
have but one dominant motive — Another rule for the 
relief of melancholy Christians — Tendency of ministers 
in their sine titulo condition — Remark of Dr. Ashbel 
G-reen — Brooding over our spiritual maladies — Cowper's 
translating Homer and Madame G-uyon — Johnson's advice 
to Boswell — His translation of Thuanus — Panacea for 
the tsedium vitge — The history of a human soul marvel- 
ous — Case of a fellow student — of Dr. Lobdell — Activity 
in promoting the welfare of others — Harlan Page — Self- 
denial — Difficulty of complying with these counsels — 
Trying case of clergymen in declining health, especially 
in advanced life — Casus omissus. Pages 242 — 252. 



CONTENTS. 



15 



CHAPTER V. 

Counsels — The special counsel of Dr. J. W. Alexander — 
Importance of a scrupulous attention to this advice — 
Connection between our emotions of joy and sorrow and 
our health — Authors on the subject of promoting health, 
numerous — Recapitulation of some of the instructions in 
the preceding pages. Pages 253, 254. 

Due discrimination and self-control in relation 
to our Food — Plutarch and the Boeotians — Richard 
Cumberland. Pages 254, 255. 

Sufficient rest, and at the proper seasons — Des- 
pondency caused by study at unseasonable hours — The 
effect as stated by Dr. Johnson — Manual for the Ner- 
vous — Case of a theological student — Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Miller on night study — M. G-uizot, Minister of Louis 
Philippe — Henry Kirke White — Urquhart — Henry Mar- 
tyn. Pages 256—259. 

Injurious effects of narcotics — ToBACCo-^Resolu- 
tion of Methodist Conferences — Cowper and Rev. Mr. 
Bull, of Newport-Pagnell — " Counter-blast to Tobacco of 
King James the First" — Edict in the time of Elizabeth 
— Dr. Dunglison — Letters on Clerical Habits and Man- 
ners — M. Bouisson — Excessive use of tobacco by theolo- 
gical students — Its manifold injurious effects — Not easily 
persuaded of their danger — Ought not to be taken at all, 
or if ever necessary, in small quantities, and as seldom as 
possible — The practice a trespass against our neighbour 
— Some who use it a trouble to themselves and to every 
body else — A special case — The fact a melancholy one — 
Its great havoc of life, especially in Germany — Its inju- 
rious influences on the mind, causing melancholy, and 
sometimes insanity — Pupils of the Polytechnic School at 



16 



CONTENTS. 



Paris — Ohio Lunatic Asylum — Alcoholic drinks, and 
stimulating or stupefying drugs — Opinions of Doctors 
Good, Cullin, and Moore. Pages 259—268. 

Exercise in Pure Air — Tendency of the depressing 
passions to render us inert and taciturn — The present 
treatise not an attempt to give all the counsels which are 
so accessible in standard authors — Opinion of one of the 
most eminent — A "moral atmosphere" not altogether a 
figure of speech — Dr. Hall — Utility of exercise under- 
stood by literary men — " Peter's Letters to his Kins- 
folk" — Advice of Horace to Virgil — The men whom 
" Peter" speaks of, and their mode of taking exercise — 
Counsel of one restored from prolonged melancholy. 
Pages 268—274. 

Dr. N. L. Rice on Ministerial Depression — Daniel 
Baker's remark — All ministers cannot apply it to them- 
selves — Many have seasons of mental depression, pro- 
duced by various causes — How their depression ope- 
rates — Suggestions not to attempt mental labour while it 
continues — If necessary to preach, select a subject which 
demands intellectual effort — How they should commence 
their discourse — not come to any new conclusions, nor 
change their plan while under mental depression — We 
should make no attempt to reason persons out of their 
gloomy mood — Case of a minister from Virginia — The 
"blues" — Timely rest and diversion — Dr. Alexander's 
"Thoughts on Religious Experience" — Importance of 
special watchfulness and prayer against melancholy in 
the decline of life — Cases of two persons mentioned by 
Dr. A. Alexander. Pages 274 — 282. 

Let the desponding look to Christ — Extract from 
Dr. J. Owen on the one hundred and thirtieth Psalm — 
Rev. Mr. Rogers — We must distinguish between our 



CONTENTS. 



17 



justification and our sanctification — between the effects 
of faith and faith itself — Our sanctification full of imper- 
fection, but the righteousness of Christ, on which we 
rely for justification, is perfect — Dr. Church, President 
of a Medical Society — His opinion on the efficacy of 
faith in the cure of diseases — Opinion of Dr. Bell — Mr. 
Shrubsole's account of himself in his Christian Memoirs — 
Rev. Dr. Ashbel G-reen on excluding ministers from the 
chamber of the sick — Concurring sentiments of Dr. 
Rush — Dr. Rush's view of the moral and religious quali- 
fications necessary for a physician — Cures performed by 
faith and hope — Rev. Mr. Rogers's restoration in answer 
to prayer — His book a monument of his deliverance — A 
prevailing temptation of desponding Christians to look to 
themselves and their fluctuating frames — Like the Israel- 
ite in the wilderness, depending on the strength of his 
constitution instead of looking to the brazen image — 
Baxter, for many years, in great perplexity about his 
own spiritual state — Remark of his biographer, Orme — 
All hope of the guilty creature is exterior to himself — 
The gospel is the balm of Grilead, and Christ the only 
Physician — These sentiments cannot be repeated too 
often — Grod can as easily forgive a thousand sins as one — 
Poring upon ourselves increases our troubles — "Apt to 
think we could go to Christ were we so and so" — Not 
forget the promised help of the Holy Spirit — Watch 
against a common sin of the desponding — Assurance 
does not imply that we are free from sin — Remark of 
Thomas Adam — The despondency and gloom of the 
pious a mystery of Providence — Rutherford's remark — 
No more difficulty in the abandonment of good men to 
despondency produced by a physical cause, than in their 
being the victim of any other natural evil — No promise 
2 



18 



CONTENTS. 



of the Bible that insures them against such a trial — 
Job's history monitory — Cowper's mental darkness did 
not militate with the Divine goodness — Affliction used 
by God to try and manifest the graces of his people — 
Instrumental in qualifying religious teachers for greater 
usefulness — Rods of God sharp, but " dipped in honey" — 
Remarks of Mr. Rogers on the subject — The new crea- 
ture raised out of the ruins of the flesh — Grod's provi- 
dence will turn our water into wine, &c. — Dr. Watts's 
remarks on the disappointments of heaven — The imper- 
fect sanctification of Christians on the near approach of 
death, a subject of perplexity to many — An enigma to 
Dr. G-uthrie — His proposed solution. Pages 282 — 301. 



PREFACE. 



A devout physician once told a friend of the 
writer, that "he never knew a triumphant 
death when the disease of the pious patient 
was below the diaphragm." This remark may- 
be taken in a broader sense than its author 
intended, and from which we should earnestly 
dissent; but it recognizes a power of our 
bodily maladies to control and pervert the 
healthful functions of the mind, which none 
are more concerned to know than they who 
have the cure of souls. Within the range of 
almost every pastor's charge of moderate ex- 
tent, cases of spiritual distress are occurring 
to which he can minister no relief; they lie 
beyond the reach of any remedies to which he 
can resort. The latent cause is the morbid 
condition of the physical part, which brings 
them legitimately within the province of the 
physician. On the other hand, the instances 



20 



PREFACE. 



are scarcely less multiplied, in which all the 
science and skill of the healing art are impo- 
tent, till the thorn is extracted from the con- 
science. The influence of physical agents on 
moral states, moreover, is too little understood 
or heeded by the instructors of our children. 
They do not sufficiently consider the connec- 
tion between intellect and morality, or between 
sensation and thought. "The study and the 
statistics of mental disease teach a fearful les- 
son concerning the giant evils resulting from 
ignorant mismanagement of the body in rela- 
tion to the mind and the moral nature." 

It has been intimated by judicious friends, 
that our smaller work on this subject first pub- 
lished, would have been made more instructive 
and extensively useful by a considerable ampli- 
fication. The last two letters that we ever 
received from our lamented friend and corres- 
pondent, Dr. James W. Alexander^ related 
mainly to its reproduction and enlargement 
" on several points," which he thought " should 
be treated more fully." None of all our friends 
ever expressed a deeper interest in the subject 
of this book, nor helped us more by their 
counsel, than the late Doctors Alexander, both 
father and son. The removal of the former, 



PREFACE. 



21 



like a shock of corn in his season, though caus- 
ing wide spread sorrow, did not take us by 
surprise. 

Multis ille bonis flebilis, occidit; 
Nulli flebilior, quam mihi. 

The death of the latter, in his full strength, 
and at the time of so great and increasing 
usefulness, was painfully abrupt, and seemed 
to be premature. He was taken from a large 
circle of admirers, whose memory lingers on 
their irreparable loss, with the mournful reflec- 
tion expressed in that "exquisite inscription 
of Shenstone's," whose aroma no translation 
can preserve, 

Heu ! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse ! 

They almost forget the living in their reminis- 
cences of the dead. 

We have so far respected the suggestions of 
our advisers as to add to what was presented in 
the prior edition many interesting facts, which, 
however familiar to persons conversant with 
the standard works on Physiology and Hy- 
giene, will be new to others. Changes have 
been made in other respects by additions and 
various modifications, especially under the heads 
of Temptations and Counsels, which have ma- 



22 



PREFACE. 



terially increased its size, and made it more 
conducive to the purpose for which it was 
written. The author makes no pretension to 
originality or deep thinking, nor to such an 
acquaintance with psychology, or physical 
science, as a more thorough and enlightened 
discussion of the subject requires. So far as 
the thoughts of others have been approved, 
and were adapted to the purpose of the writer, 
they have been adopted, often in their own 
language, and are here acknowledged in gene- 
ral, to supersede the necessity of multiplied 
marginal references and marks of quotation. 
The authors of certain well-written papers on 
subjects kindred to this, in the Literary and 
Theological Review, the Biblical Repertory, 
and Christian Spectator, will perceive our obli- 
gations to them. Doctors George and John 
Cheyne, Combe, Good, Moore, Broussais, Bur- 
rows, Rush, Dunglison, Brigham, Hall, and 
Esquirol, have been consulted, especially Dr. 
James Johnson, justly called "the ablest and 
most effective writer of the age on every subject 
to which his attention was directed." Little 
is left for a successor to glean in any field of 
medical research after having been reaped by 
him. We have also had much assistance from 



PREFACE. 



23 



"the soundest and ablest medical periodical 
in the English language" — the Medico-Chirur- 
gical Review. As reference will be found in 
the present work to certain writers on subjects 
akin to that of which it treats, we give the 
titles of a few for the guidance of any who 
may have leisure and inclination to read them. 
In addition to those already named, we would 
mention Pritchard, Pinel, Prout ; V oison on the 
Moral and Physical Causes of Mental Mala- 
dies; Tissot on the Health of Men of Letters; 
Hitchcock's Lectures on Diet, 11c gi men, and 
Employment; Shepherd's Sincere Convert; and 
Robe on Religious Melancholy. Most of these, 
of course, view the subject of which they treat, 
as philosophers or men of science; but those 
who have access to the older English divines 
will find that questions of casuistry, spiritual 
troubles, evidences of grace, &c., are discussed 
with great ability, and are made far more pro- 
minent and important in them than they are 
in the theological works of times more modern. 
The writings of the Rev. Timothy Rogers, 
several times quoted in the ensuing pages, 
are peculiarly instructive to persons labouring 
under spiritual distress, as having been dic- 
tated by his own experience. Those who can- 



24 



PREFACE. 



not get this rare book will find a choice 
sample of its counsels in the fourth chapter of 
Dr. Archibald Alexander's "Thoughts on Re- 
ligious Experience." From this interesting 
work, as well as from the "Discourse of Mr. 
Rogers on Trouble of Mind and the Disease 
of Melancholy," we have received important 
aid. 

The writer has been gratified with the 
favour shown to his imperfect treatise by the 
press, both secular and religious; -and espe- 
cially with testimonials, through private chan- 
nels, that it has proved useful in ministering 
relief to some of that class for whom it was 
principally designed. That the same benefi- 
cent results may follow this enlarged edition, 
is the sincere desire of the author, as it ought 
to be his paramount motive in preparing it for 
publication. 



MAN, MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONNECTION BETWEEN THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL PARTS IN MAN. 

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful is man! — Young. 

"I will praise Thee," says David, "for I am 
fearfully and wonderfully made." How far 
the Psalmist understood the full import of his 
words, or was acquainted with the wonderful 
mechanism of man, to which he alludes, we do 
not presume to know. It is enough to say, 
that the terms which he uses are most appro- 
priate and descriptive, as has been abundantly 
proved by the researches of physiology. But 
curious and fearful as is the structure of the 
material part, there is displayed far more of the 
wisdom and greatness of God in the creation 
and endowments of the soul; and although we 
are accustomed to speak familiarly of both, 
3 



26 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

as if they were well understood, yet there is 
scarcely a term which we employ which is not 
rather a symbol of what we do not know, than 
an exponent of what we do. The mystery of 
the Trinity is not more inexplicable than is 
the connection that subsists between the body 
and the ,soul of man. The most that we know 
of either, is derived from the results which 
flow from such an union. As we infer the 
being and co-operation of the three persons in 
the Godhead, from the nature and the benefits 
of redemption, by which this triune existence 
is implied, so we become assured that we have 
a spirit as well as a body, from their acts or 
motions, which we feel. We know nothing of 
the substance of which either is composed, nor 
of the mode in which the two are linked 
together. The attempts of science to reach 
and explain these ultimate facts, have not 
amounted to even an approximation. What- 
ever has been written concerning the locality 
of the soul, the time of its entrance into the 
body, the mode by which it acts upon or 
governs it, and the avenue through which it 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 27 

escapes at death, is but little more than specu- 
lation and conjecture. Dr. Abercrombie says, 
"we talk about matter, and we talk about 
mind; we speculate concerning materiality and 
immateriality, until we argue ourselves into a 
kind of belief that we understand something of 
the subject. The truth is, that we understand 
nothing." We really know but little more 
than a few facts in relation to both, which are 
discoverable by their respective qualities anJL 
attributes; such as that the two are closely 
united; that what is called the nervous system 
is the medium of communication between them ; 
so that they exert a strong reciprocal influence 
upon each other ; that when the one is afflicted, 
it always has the sympathy of the other. They, 
therefore, have been employed more wisely, 
who, leaving the former as among the inscru- 
table things of God, have endeavoured to make 
a practical improvement of the latter. It is a 
subject that so intimately blends with all that 
conduces to the enjoyment and usefulness of 
life, as well as its continuance, that it is of the 
highest importance for all to understand it, and 



28 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

to none is such knowledge more needful than 
to the official teachers of religion. 

It is proposed at this time to offer a few 
thoughts on this interesting topic, more with a 
view to awaken the attention, and invite the 
pen of others, than to furnish all that is needed. 
Indeed, such a work as the exigency of the 
Church has long demanded, is not likely to be 
accomplished by " any one who is not furnished 
with a suitable education, theological and medi- 
cal, profoundly and experimentally acquainted 
with the Scriptures, fond of research, and gifted 
with good powers of generalization and induc- 
tion." 

For those who wish to pursue the subject in 
its pathological bearings, or as one of the 
departments of physiology, there are numerous 
medical treatises, both domestic and foreign, 
which are easily accessible. What we have to 
offer in the following chapters is little more 
than the result of some observation, and the 
few years' experience of a pastor. It is in- 
tended to furnish, in a portable form and size, 
a tract for the benefit of Christians of an un- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



29 



equal and fluctuating experience, produced by 
physical causes, though not suspected perhaps 
by themselves, nor their spiritual advisers. 

It has already been said, that much that 
pertains to the nature of the connection be- 
tween the flesh and the spirit is a mystery 
which science has tried in vain to explore. It 
has proceeded so far as to discover in the human 
fabric, certain delicate white threads, leading 
from the brain and spinal marrow to every part 
of the body. It has also been ascertained that 
by means of these nerves (as they are called 
from the Latin term nervus, a string) sensations 
are conveyed from each of the organs of - sense 
to the brain; moreover, that these are the chan- 
nels of communication between the mind and 
the body, as is proved by the well-known fact, 
that if one of the nerves of the arm or leg 
be sundered, all power of that limb is lost; if 
another be cut, sensation is no longer trans- 
mitted through the arm to the mind. The 
branches and ramifications of the nerves are so 
numerous and so generally diffused, that they 
have a virtual omnipresence throughout the 
3* 



30 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

animal fabric. Though diminishing in size as 
they approach their places of termination, so 
that at length they become invisible to the 
naked eye, yet they lose none of their exquisite 
sensibility. The point of the finest needle 
cannot be brought into contact with the skin in 
any part of the body without detecting the 
presence of a nerve. The sensation caused by 
ever so delicate a touch upon the most attenu- 
ated branch is imparted to a larger, then to a 
larger still, and with electric rapidity to all ; so 
that the remotest part is instantly conscious of 
the impression. This kind of correlation, by 
which different organs of the body are affected 
by impressions made upon one, through the 
commerce of the nerves, is called "sympathy." 
This mysterious intercourse is rendered more 
complete and effective by the agency of the 
intercostal or "sympathetic nerve," which, pass- 
ing through the innumerable branches and 
plexuses, is the common channel of communi- 
cating with them all. Such is that fearful and 
wonderful department of the human economy 
called the Nervous System — the great organ of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



31 



thought, feeling, and voluntary motion. How 
much, then, must the enjoyment of life, as well 
as its usefulness, depend on its healthful con- 
dition! Nor is it the least wonderful of the 
whole, when we examine into the various 
functions of the nerves, and the perpetual irri- 
tations and violence to which they are exposed, 
that the nervous economy is not more fre- 
quently deranged than it is. 

Anatomists tell us, that when these little 
threads become diseased, there is no percep- 
tible change in their size, shape, colour, nor 
appearance. Even when the power of trans- 
mitting sensation is lost, nutrition still goes on, 
and the nerves remain as large in a paralyzed 
as in a healthy limb. Before a patient dies, 
they resist mortification longer than most parts 
of the body, and, after death, decay more slowly. 
This explains, in part, how it is that nervous 
diseases, which are often so prolonged, do not 
more impair the physical strength, nor seem to 
abridge the life of the sufferer. 

With respect to the actual nature of the 
nervous force, we offer no opinion, nor do we 



32 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

quote the conjectures of others. The notion 
that obtained for a while among some physiolo- 
gists, that it was identical with the electric 
power, has been generally abandoned in the 
present day. In what way, therefore, this com- 
munication between the brain, the spinal mar- 
row, and the nerves is effected; how the voli- 
tions and conceptions of the mind are conveyed 
on these delicate material conductors — whether 
by tremors or vibrations, like the cords of a 
musical instrument, or, as Hippocrates and 
Galen supposed, by a fine ethereal fluid, elabo- 
rated in the organ of the brain, or by neither — 
what is their specific substance or construction, 
by which they are made not only vehicles of 
thought, but instruments of exquisite pleasure 
or pain, are among the questions that have been 
a constant source of hypothesis in past ages, 
but which neither reason nor revelation has 
answered. It is quite probable that neither 
our happiness nor our usefulness would be in- 
creased by a knowledge of the essence of mind 
and matter, and that enough is known from 
their various phenomena to answer every prac- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



33 



tical purpose. With that class of them which 
we are about to consider, the world of course 
have been more or less familiar ever since the 
fall subjected man to disease, and made the 
earthly part a clog, while it gave it such 
ascendency over the heavenly. But in regard 
to those morbid results of this connection, 
which are technically called "nervous," it has 
frequently been said, that, to a great extent, 
they are a penalty for an abuse of the multi- 
plied blessings of civilized life. Among savage 
tribes, such affections are scarcely known, and 
they are very rare among those whose pursuits 
are active, and connected with habitual expo- 
sure. But they seem to have increased just in 
proportion as nations have advanced in out- 
ward prosperity and in intellectual refinement. 
Hence it is easily understood why medicine 
was no more diligently cultivated among the 
ancients, and how it happened that the first 
physician of eminence, who has been called the 
" father of medicine," should have lived within 
less than five hundred years before Christ. In 
the early ages of the world, there was compara- 



34 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tively little occasion for a profession that is 
now so highly honoured, and which is so indis- 
pensable to the health and happiness of society. 
The simplicity of manners which prevailed, 
plainness of diet, temperance, and activity in 
rural occupations, were productive of a degree 
of health and vigour which are hardly known 
at present. How far the great age of man, 
until shortened by a Divine decree, was the 
result of natural causes, we do not presume to 
say; but the progress of the healing art has 
marked, with a good degree of accuracy, in 
successive ages, the increase of luxury and ex- 
cessive sensual indulgence. 

"Had it not been," Dr. Cheyne says, "for 
the lewdness, luxury, and intemperate gratifi- 
cation of the passions and appetites, which first 
ruined and spoiled the constitution of the 
fathers, whereby they could communicate only 
a diseased, crazy, and untunable carcass to 
their sons, there had never happened so much 
sickness, pain, and misery, so unhappy lives, 
and such wretched ends, as we now behold 
among men." The records of prisons and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



35 



almshouses prove that physical vices are not 
only perpetuated in the offspring of the guilty 
parent, but they originate mental deformities. 
Three-fourths of the idiotic in a Massachusetts' 
Charity were found to be of parents, one or 
both of whom were drunken. From an exami- 
nation of juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst, 
by Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, it appeared that the 
majority were found deficient in physical or- 
ganization. Mr. Coleridge says, that the his- 
tory of a man for the months that precede his 
birth, would probably be far more interesting, 
and contain events of greater moment, than all 
that follow it. 

I. THE SACRED WRITINGS. 

That these should furnish but little instruc- 
tion on the subject of the present discussion, 
however important to so large a proportion 
of modern believers, is easily accounted for. 
This has fallen rather within the province of 
that science which has grown out of the 
^hanged circumstances of man, especially the 
great degeneracy in his habits of living. But 



36 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

while we discover in the Bible comparatively 
few of the elements of many modern theories 
concerning this union of the soul and body, 
and the moral results, yet they contain records 
of the experience and exercises of the reli- 
gious, and of others, which afford many exem- 
plifications of the fact. Such is supposed by 
some to have been the distressing affection of 
Saul, ascribed to an evil spirit from God, the 
successive paroxysms of which were allayed by 
the music of the son of Jesse. Stackhouse 
thinks that it proceeded from deep depression 
of spirits, or black bile inflamed, and that 
he was rather hypochondriac than possessed. 
Agreeable to this bad complexion of body, was 
the natural temper of his mind. 

Another example is quoted in the case of 
the Psalmist himself, when, in one of his sacred 
songs, his harp is tuned to strains of the deepest 
melancholy, and he mournfully sings : My soul 
refused to be comforted. I remembered God, 
and was troubled ; I complained, and my spirit 
was overwhelmed: I am so troubled that I cannot 
speak. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 37 

will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy 
clean gone for ever? Hath God forgotten to be 
gracious ? And then he adds, I said, this is my 
infirmity; an expression which means, as under- 
stood by some, that he suspects the cause of his 
great depression to be physical, or to proceed 
from the state of the body. 

Another illustration of this connection, and 
the influence of the material part over the 
spiritual, has been drawn from the language of 
the Saviour in his gentle rebuke of the lethargy 
of the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. 
That they should have fallen asleep under such 
circumstances, appeared to themselves to admit 
of no apology, and they did not attempt it. 
But on being awaked by their Master, he 
kindly remarked, the spirit is willing, but the 
flesh is weak. The delinquency was to be 
ascribed, not so much to the state of their 
heart, as to bodily fatigue ; implying, as is 
commonly understood, a mild reproof, at the 
same time that it evinces the disposition of 
Christ to regard it as evidence more of natural 
infirmity than of guilt. The same injurious 
4 



38 ' INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

influence of the earthly part is recognized by 
the apostle Paul, in those numerous passages 
of his writings in which he so graphically 
describes the conflict between the flesh and the 
spirit: I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, 
there dwelleth ' no good thing. I delight in the 
law of God, after the inner man, but I see another 
law in my members warring against the law of 
my mind, bringing me, fyc. In another place, he 
ascribes the inability of the law to justify, not 
to itself, but to a weakness through the flesh. 
We are aware that the term flesh here is used 
in a figurative sense, to signify the remainder 
of natural corruption which still adheres to the 
man, even _after his moral state has become 
changed by regenerating grace. But the pas- 
sages are none the less suited to our purpose, 
inasmuch as they imply that the organs of sense 
are made the instruments through which the 
corruption of our nature is developed, and its 
operation felt upon the spiritual man. In this 
connection, it may be observed, that the writ- 
ings of the Fathers contain numerous quota- 
tions from the serious minded heathen, that 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



39 



show a striking coincidence with the opinions 
of Paul on the subject of depravity, and espe- 
cially the prejudical influence of the body. 
Cicero's remark is familiar to many — that men 
are brought into life by nature, as a step- 
mother, with a frail and infirm body, with a 
soul prone to divers lusts. And what but this 
doctrine of physical influence is perverted and 
caricatured in that motley mixture of Chris- 
tianity and Persian philosophy contained in the 
system of the Manicheans of the third century 
of the Christian era, concerning the two princi- 
ples of good and evil — the former of which is 
represented as the creator of the soul of man, 
and the latter of his body. 

H. THE TESTIMONY OF SCIENCE. 

If what the Scriptures contain on this sub- 
ject amounts only to hints or implications, 
rather than positive declarations, our light is 
abundant when we come to the testimony of 
science. The connection and influence of 
which we speak, have been proved and illus- 
trated with great clearness by those who have 



40 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

examined the structure of the human system, 
its capacities and functions, organic, intellect- 
ual, and moral. They have not failed to see 
how much the state of the mind and moral 
feelings has to do with the induction, the per- 
sistence, and final issue of many maladies. 
This connection is as fully implied in the 
abuses of this truth, as it is taught in its legiti- 
mate uses. Thus it has been made to furnish 
the basis of materialism under the milder, and, 
as understood and taught by many, the inno- 
cent forms of cranioscopy, craniology, phreno-* 
logy, &c., as well as of that grosser system of 
Lawrence, which makes the soul of man a mere 
chemical combination, which contends that it 
is not a spiritual substance, distinct from his 
body, but that the principle within him which 
thinks, is material; and that reasoning and 
reflection are functions of organized matter; 
which gravely tells him that he grows like a 
vegetable, or accretes like a crystal; or is 
attracted and repulsed like a particle of iron 
exposed to magnetic influence: That his brain 
secretes thought, as his liver secretes bile; that 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 41 

believing and disbelieving are acts of the soul, 
as is tasting of the body, and one is as destitute 
of any moral character as the other; and there- 
fore, that it is as absurd to suppose a man 
blamable for being an atheist, as for being 
afflicted with an attack of the gout. That or- 
ganized differs from inorganized matter, merely 
by the addition of certain properties, such as 
sensibility and irritability, which are called 
vital. The masses of matter which constitute 
the several parts of the animal frame are en- 
dowed according to the respective functions or 
purposes which they are to execute, and life is 
the general result of their exercise. Upon this 
hypothesis the human frame is nothing moi'e 
than "a barrel-organ, possessing a systematic 
arrangement of parts, played upon by peculiar 
powers, and executing particular pieces or pur- 
poses. Life is the music produced by the 
general assemblage, or result of the harmonious 
action. As long as either the vital or mechani- 
cal instrument is wound up by a regular supply 
of food, or of the winch, so long the music 
will continue ; but both are worn out by their 
4* 



42 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



own action; and when the machine will no 
longer work, the life has the same close as 
the music; 

redit in nihilum, quod fuit ante nihil. 

That, back to nothing goes, which nothing was before. 

That such sentiments as these are as directly 
at variance with sound science as they are with 
revealed religion, it is gratuitous to assert. In 
admitting, as we have done, that this inex- 
plicable union of the body and soul may involve 
many truths which have not yet been discover- 
ed, we do not concede that it warrants any such 
atheistic corollaries as this. It would be easy 
to show, that although commended by names 
of some notoriety, yet such a materialism is 
"a logical absurdity, and a total misconception 
of the first principles of philosophical inquiry." 
But as it is our purpose in this disquisition to 
keep within the province of Christian casuistry, 
we think it better, in passing, rather to hint at 
than quote, as freely as we might, the illustra- 
tions of the present head, which are furnished^ 
by physiology. Yet all may safely be granted 
to the influence of the flesh upon the spirit, . 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



43 



which truth requires, without affording the 
smallest ground for these shocking conclusions. 

The great vital organs of the human system, 
such as the brain, stomach, liver, &c., may 
seem to act as mechanically as the hand, the 
ear, or the tongue, yet the health of the mind 
is much affected by the healthful state of this 
apparatus of the body. Notice, first, 

The Brain. We know and admit, that the 
operations of the intellect are closely allied to 
that soft whitish mass, or viscus, lodged be- 
neatS the arched bone of the head, which is 
called the brain. Thus a blow which depresses 
a portion of the skull upon the brain, will cause 
a derangement or suspension of the mind's ope- 
rations until such pressure is removed. A man 
at the battle of Waterloo had a small portion 
of his skull-bone beat in upon the brain, to the 
depth of half an inch. This caused volition 
and sensation to cease, and he was nearly in a 
lifeless state. So soon as the depressed portion 
of bone was raised from the brain, the man 
immediately arose, dressed himself, became 
perfectly rational, and recovered rapidly. A 



44 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

British captain, while giving orders on the 
quarter-deck of his ship at the battle of the 
Nile, was struck on the head by a shot, and 
immediately became senseless. He was taken 
home and removed to Greenwich Hospital, 
where for fifteen months he evinced no sign 
of intelligence. He was then trepanned, and 
immediately after, his consciousness returned, 
when he began at once to see the orders carried 
out that he had given during the battle, fifteen 
months before. The clock-work of the brain, 
unaware that it had stopped, upon being set in 
motion, pointed to the exact minute at which 
it had left off. 

It has been discovered that whatever pro- 
duces mental excitement, increases the flow of 
blood to the head, and thus augments the size 
and power of the brain; just as exertion of the 
limbs enlarges and strengthens their muscles. 
Sir Astley Cooper had a patient whose skull 
was so imperfect as to enable him to examine 
the movements of the brain. "I distinctly 
saw," Sir Astley says, "that the pulsation of 
the brain was regular and slow; but at this 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



45 



time he was agitated by some opposition to his 
wishes, and directly the blood was sent with 
increased force to his brain, and the pulsations 
became frequent and violent. 

A case more interesting still, mentioned by 
Dr. Caldwell, was a female who had lost a 
large portion of the skull and dura mater by 
disease. When she was in a dreamless sleep, 
her brain was motionless; when her sleep was 
imperfect, and disturbed by dreams, her brain 
protruded from the cranium. In vivid dreams, 
reported as such by herself, the protrusion was 
considerable; and when perfectly awake, espe- 
cially if engaged in active thought, or sprightly 
conversation, it was much greater. 

It is known that the brain of an adult of 
ordinary intellect is comparatively large, weigh- 
ing about three and a half pounds, often a little 
less. In some persons of uncommon mind, it 
has been known to be much greater. The 
brain of Byron, for instance, is said to have 
weighed four and a half pounds, and that of 
Baron Cuvier four pounds thirteen ounces and 
a half. On the other hand, the brain of an 



46 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

idiot does not exceed in size that of a child a 
year old, or between one and two pounds in 
weight. It has been proved by measurement, 
that the heads of great thinkers frequently con- 
tinue to increase until the subjects are fifty 
years of age, and long after the other portions 
of the system have ceased to enlarge. This 
was true of Bonaparte, whose head, though 
small in youth, in after life became enormous. 
The reverse is known to occur in cases of pro- 
tracted insanity; not only the brain diminishes, 
but the skull itself has often sensibly con- 
tracted, as is mentioned of Dean Swift, who, 
in the latter part of his life, "Sunk into a state 
of mental imbecility, a distressing calamity, of 
which he appears to have had a presentiment, 
having predicted "that he would first die at 
top." 

It is vain then to deny that this wonder- 
ful part of the body has much to do with the 
manifestations of mind, though we know of no 
warrant for the strange conceit of the older 
physiologists, that there is some central spot in 
that organ where all the messages of the nerves 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



47 



are ultimately reported, and whence all the 
orders of the will are issued; or for the figment 
of Descartes, that the peculiar seat of the mind 
is the pineal gland. Nor is it incredible, that 
a different combination of the physical ele- 
ments of the man may occasion a corresponding 
difference in the character and qualities of the 
mind; that a genius for poetry or mathematics, 
for painting or music, may be connected with 
a peculiar arrangement or disposition of some 
particles in the animal economy; in other words, 
that the earthen vessel is so constructed in some 
particulars, which escape the eye of the anato- 
mist, as to form a different mould, or give a 
peculiar shape to the mind, according to the 
sphere of usefulness for which it is designed by 
its Creator. All this may be true, and not con- 
flict with the teachings of revelation. Indeed, 
for aught we know to the contrary, it is com- 
prehended in what the Psalmist calls the " fear- 
ful and wonderful" construction of man. But 
in what way the power of thought is originated, 
or how it is affected by the matter in which it 
seems to be lodged, is perhaps as profound a 



48 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

secret to Gabriel as it is to us; while the facts 
by which the truth itself is demonstrated, are, 
many of them, as affecting as they are familiar. 
Is the body attacked and prostrated by disease, 
it is sure of the sympathy of its spiritual part- 
ner, which is often reduced to the feebleness of 
infancy by the debility of the former. Its per- 
ceptions become obtuse, the memory fails, the 
power of attention is gone, as we are often 
painfully admonished by discovering that the 
conversation and counsels which were given to 
the sick, their confessions, and promises, and 
prayers, are all forgotten on their recovery. 
Perhaps it is not recollected even, that we were 
once at their bedside and addressed them. But 
the connection is not less intimate between the 
mind and 

The Stomach. "Whether this sympathy takes 
place through the medium of the blood-vessels, 
the nerves, or both, we do not know. Nothing 
is made more familiar by experience than the 
fact, that the vigorous action of the former 
depends, in a great degree, upon the sound 
condition of the latter. Some assert that the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



49, 



brain, as the common sensorium to which all 
sensations are ultimately referred, is the first 
to become sensible to the disorder of the sto- 
mach. That, "like two friends in harmonious 
co-operation, they mutually support each other 
in health; but, in disease, like sworn enemies, 
they act and react upon each other with the 
most destructive malignity." Who has not ob- 
served, without the aid of books or physicians, 
to suggest it, that whatever painfully affects 
his mind, and disturbs its equanimity, takes 
away his appetite for food, or the power to 
digest it, and causes more or less disquietude 
in the stomach. For this reason, a strong ex- 
citement of the mind is often one of the surest 
remedies for this uneasiness. No man, per- 
haps, ever had an appetite for food under the 
full influence of the depressing passions, such 
as fear or grief. He may eat from persuasion, 
or from a sense of duty, but he eats without 
desire or a craving sense of hunger. Hence, 
those who are suddenly deprived of their senses 
by an overwhelming and unexpected evil, pass 
5 



50 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 



days and nights without food of any kind, each 
sufferer feeling, with King Lear, 

When the mind's free 
The body's delicate; the tempest in my mind 
Doth from my senses take all feeling else 
Save what beats there. 

Dr. Brigham says, One day, when about to 
sit down to dinner, with an appetite whetted 
by five or six hours' exercise, a letter was put 
into my hands announcing the death of a friend 
to whom I felt strongly attached. The conse- 
quence was an instantaneous loss of appetite, 
which continued for two or three days. The 
same effect of mental distress is recognized by 
the Psalmist when he says, My heart is smitten, 
and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat 
my bread. A stern look, and a very few re- 
proachful words from Henry VIII. gave the 
ambitious Woolsey a fit of indigestion which 
destroyed the Cardinal's life. 

The stomach, in its turn, reacts upon the 
mind, causing confusion of thought, defect of 
memory, and of the power of abstraction — not 
to mention despondency, irascibility, and other 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



51 



kinds of morbid mental disturbance, by which 
the sufferer is made ineffably wretched. Hence 
dyspepsia, that malady so Protean in its forms, 
once generally thought to be a disease origi- 
nating always in the stomach, is now considered 
by many of the most intelligent of the faculty 
as primarily a disease of the brain and nerv- 
ous system, perpetuated by mental excitement, 
especially in the case of students. Thus it has 
been observed, that persons who are in the 
habit of strongly employing their mental facul- 
ties shortly after taking food, are more or less 
subject to this affection. In such a case, the 
nervous energy required for the process of 
digestion, instead of being expended upon the 
stomach, is wasted upon the intellectual organs. 
Aristotle informs us that all the great men of 
his time were hypochondriacs, omnes ingeniosos 
melancholicos ; that "they had cultivated their 
mind at the expense of their body." 

Nor is the force of the morbid impulse pro- 
ceeding from the brain wholly exhausted upon 
the stomach, but often reaches to 

The Lungs and Heart — causing diseased 



52 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



action in both. The acute pain sometimes felt 
in the region of the heart, a tremulous or flut- 
tering sensation there, interruptions of the 
pulse, and palpitations, which the alarmed suf- 
ferer is ready to ascribe to organic disease, are 
very often symptoms only of "gastric derange- 
ment, which has been generated by the morbific 
influence of the mind." Others supposed the 
hidden cause of this mental depression to be 
the 

Spleen — and hence, "to be spleeny," as 
descriptive of the gloomy and disconsolate, has 
come down to us traditionally as a saying of 
antiquity. What is the use of this spongy 
viscus has never been determined. Dr. Good 
says, various hypotheses have been offered by 
learned men; but they are hypotheses,, and 
nothing more. Archdeacon Paley thinks it is 
employed as needful in the package of the 
animal mass. It is possible, he says, that the 
spleen may be " merely a stuffing, a soft cushion 
to fill up a vacancy or hollow, which, unless 
occupied would leave the package loose and 
unsteady." 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



53 



But none of the viscera of the body better 
show its alliance to the mind, or illustrate and 
establish this mysterious influence of the body 
on the mind, than the 

Liver. What are all the uses of this organ 
in the human economy, is still a subject of 
inquiry. The main service which it performs, 
so far as is generally understood, is merely the 
secretion daily of a few ounces of bile. But 
when we consider its dimensions — the largest 
gland of any kind in the human system — the 
number and size of its parts, and its peculiar 
structure, we cannot resist the impression that 
this great constituent of the vital mechanism 
is used for a higher purpose than this. And 
hence the opinion has obtained, both among 
the ancients and moderns, that the liver has a 
powerful influence on the temperament, the 
mental functions, and the passions of the man, 
and thus affecting his moral and religious feel- 
ings. We presume to offer no solution of the 
fact, nor even a conjecture, why a certain class 
of mental phenomena should be developed by 
the condition of this particular gland ; why 
5* 



54 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the liver should exhibit its affinities for that 
which is gloomy and sad, rather than the 
lungs or heart] But few have failed to see 
that such is the power of many of the depress- 
ing passions when suddenly excited, that they 
cause a gush of bile into the system at large, 
which gives a yellow tinge to the eye, and 
overcasts the mind with the most rueful fore- 
bodings and ineffable despondency. Why it 
should cause this mental dejection, is just as 
inexplicable as is the hopeful, buoyant spirit of 
the hectic patient, whose more desperate malady 
is seated in his lungs. The contrast is remark- 
able, whatever may be the cause. While in 
the last stage of consumption, the sufferer is 
cheerful and incredulous as to the issue which 
is so obvious to others, the man labouring 
under disease of the liver is often oppressed 
with a heaviness of heart which repels relief 
from any suggestion of reason or the consola- 
tions of religion. The classical reader will 
recollect the frightful *story of the miserable 
Tityus, as told by both Homer and Virgil, who, 
for his nameless crime, was condemned to be 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



55 



eternally tormented by the preying of a vulture 
upon his liver, which was supernaturally repro- 
duced as fast as consumed. 

Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, 
Immortale jecur tundens. 

A huge vulture, with his hooky beak, 
Pouncing his immortal liver. — Davidson. 

Whether our poets designed that fable should 
receive a physiological gloss, and were prompt- 
ed, in part, by their own morbid experiences or 
not, it is certainly a most graphic allegory, 
descriptive at once of the seat, the intensity, 
and hopelessness of that unspeakable wretched- 
ness which so ofteji proceeds from a diseased 
condition of this organ. Such would seem to 
have been the opinion of Lucretius, who, in 
giving the moral of various heathen fables, 
furnishes the following interpretation of this, as 
translated by Dryden. 

No Tityus torn by vultures lies in hell, 
Nor could the lobes of his rank liver swell 
To that prodigious mass for their eternal meal. 
But he's the Tityus, who by love oppressed, 
Or tyrant passions preying on his breast, 
And ever anxious thoughts, is robbed of rest. 



56 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Hippocrates, Galen, Aretaeus, and other illus- 
trious ancients, were accustomed to describe a 
great variety of mental disease under the gene- 
ral tewn "melancholy," because they believed 
a pensive and desponding state of the mind to 
arise from a superabundance of "black bile," 
the literal meaning of the compound word 
"melancholy." The same opinion concerning 
the influence of the liver in producing emotions 
of sadness, is conveyed in the word "hypochon- 
driac," applied by the ancients to the melan- 
choly, and which has been domesticated by 
the moderns. Every reader who can analyze 
the term, knows that it designates the position 
of this organ, utto ^ov^oov, under the carti- 
lage. Thus the opinion obtained early, that 
by some mysterious generation, affections of 
this sombre cast were the offspring of the 
liver. 

The writer is indebted to a lady of genius, 
and various accomplishments of both mind and 
person, for a critical remark and suggestion in 
relation to the subject of hepatic influence, as 
furnished by her own experience. She is 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



57 



favourably known to the literary and religious 
community by several instructive and interest- 
ing works, and has paid the common penalty of 
the studious in those physical ailments which 
are too often the price of their success. She 
had very soon discovered that the fluctuations 
in her animal spirits, religious enjoyment, and 
spiritual exercises generally; the changes in 
her temper, mental energy, and cheerfulness, 
to which she is painfully subject, were symp- 
tomatic of a corresponding change in the con- 
dition of this sensitive organ. But the exhibi- 
tion of some simple remedy, by which its 
healthful functions are restored, brings back at 
once her elastic freedom of thought and cheer- 
fulness. 

The preceding illustrations of the close con- 
nection between the spiritual man and the 
material, are doubtless ample for the ordinary 
reader. But in view of the grave moral uses 
to which this interesting truth is to be applied 
in our subsequent remarks, we will presume on 
the reader's indulgence while we adduce a few 
to exemplify the power of the passions as dis- 



58 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

turbers of the healthy action of our bodies. 
Some of these, it is known, retard the circu- 
lation of the blood, which, on the contrary, 
is accelerated by opposite emotions that are 
stronger and more vigorous. Who has failed 
to notice how the heart palpitates, and the 
"pulse gallops," when the mind is excited by 

Loye. When Antiochus the Syrian w T as ill of 
an occult disease which threatened his life, the 
cause of it was undiscoverable until betrayed to 
his physicians by their observing that his pulse 
suddenly became irregular whenever Stratonice 
entered the room. It then appeared that love 
for her was the cause of his illness. This was 
immediately told to his royal father, who will- 
ingly gave her to his son, that his immoderate 
passion might not cause his death. Not less 
operative is the influence of 

Hope. What fact is better established by 
the teachings, as well as the experience of the 
medical profession, than that the success of 
surgical operations, and the results of medicine, 
are materially affected by the hope or despair 
that preponderates in the mind of the patient. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



59 



Surgeons in the army have noticed a marked 
contrast between the mortality among the 
wounded of a victorious and that of a con- 
quered army. The most severe and apparently 
desperate cases recover in the former, while 
hospital gangrene, erysipelas, typhus, and dysen- 
tery, usually decimate the latter. Even the 
lighter cases are comparatively slow in their 
recovery, and imperfect in their convalescence. 
After the great battle on the Mincio, 1859, be- 
between the French and Sardinians on the one 
side, and Austrians on the other, so disastrous 
to the latter, the defeated army retreated, fol- 
lowed by the victors. A description of the 
march of each army is given by two corres- 
pondents of the London Times, one of whom 
travelled with the successful host, the other 
with the defeated. The differences in views 
and statements of the same place, scenes, and 
events is remarkable. The former are said to 
be marching through a beautiful and luxuriant 
country during the day, and at night encamp- 
ing where they are supplied with an abundance 
of the best provisions, and all sorts of rural 



60 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



dainties. There is nothing of war about the 
proceeding, except its stimulus and excitement. 
On the side of the poor Austrians it is just the 
reverse. In his letter of the same date, de- 
scribing the same places, and a march over the 
same road, the writer can scarcely find words 
to set forth the sufferings, impatience, and dis- 
gust existing around him. What was pleasant 
to the former was intolerable to the latter. 
What made all this difference'? asks the jour- 
nalist. "One condition only; the French are 
victorious, the Austrians have been defeated. 
The contrast may convey a distinctive idea of 
the extent to which moral impressions affect 
the efficiency of the soldier." 

When Dr. Hush was asked by a young man, 
his patient, supposed to be near his death in 
consumption, whether he might learn to play 
on the flute, the doctor told him yes, and at 
once said to his parents that he would get well. 
Parke tells us in his travels, that one day, in 
his journey through the burning desert, ex- 
hausted with privations and fatigue, and ready, 
as he supposed, to die, he chanced at that 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



61 



moment to spy a tiny flower that had reared 
its head above the ground. "What!" thought 
he, " will that Providence which has watched 
over this humble plant, not care for me, who 
have been taught to regard him as a Father'?" 
The thought revived his sinking spirits, and he 
immediately felt both his strength and his 
resolution to be greatly invigorated. Not less 
potent is the agency of 

Fear. How much has been said of its inju- 
rious influence as predisposing to disease, espe- 
cially during the prevalence of epidemics! A 
curious experiment was tried in Russia with 
four murderers, who were placed, without know- 
ing it, in separate beds, where four persons had 
died with cholera. They slept soundly and 
safely, none of them taking the disease. They 
were then put into beds, on which they were 
told that persons had just died of malignant 
cholera. The beds, however, were perfectly 
new, and had not been used at all. The result 
was, that three of them took the disease, and 
died within four hours. 

During the prevalence of that appalling epi- 
6 



62 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

demic in the city of Philadelphia and vicinity, 
not a single case occurred among the inmates 
of the Cherry Hill prison, which was ascribed 
to the fact that the existence of that pestilence 
in their neighbourhood was effectually con- 
cealed from them until its severity had abated. 
Doubtless the freedom of physicians from fear, 
is one of the main causes of the well-known 
immunity with which so many of them mingle 
among patients sick with the most contagious 
diseases. The efficacy of fear has been exhi- 
bited in instances of recovery from complaints 
whic bade defiance to every means that science 
could devise. Both Doctors Batchelder and 
Rush mention cases of gout which were effec- 
tually dispelled by a sudden fright. An old 
man who for several years had suffered an 
annual attack of gout, was lying in one of 
those paroxysms, when his son, by some acci- 
dent, drove the shaft of a wagon through the 
window of his room, with a terrific noise, 
and a disastrous smashing of the glass. The 
shock was electrifying, and he leaped from 
his bed with the agility of a boy, forgetting 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



63 



his crutches and cane, which were no longer 
needed. 

By the same prophylactic aid of fear, Boer- 
haave once relieved a number of persons from 
epileptic fits, which were occasioned by wit- 
nessing the convulsions of others. In the 
hearing of these patients, he gave orders that 
hot irons should be applied to the first person 
who should be attacked. The expedient proved 
successful, and not one opportunity occurred 
for a resort to this frightful remedy. And who 
can doubt that most of the monomania which 
Dr. Moore calls the fashionable apology for 
murder, might be effectually prevented by the 
restraining agency of fear, if known that cer- 
tain retribution would follow the crime'? 

Not long ago a man in New Hampshire was 
convicted of murder, committed in a state of 
partial derangement from strong drink. Just 
before his execution he acknowledged that his 
punishment was deserved, but added that " had 
I known I should be hung for killing the man, 
I would have let him alone." 

The teachings of Broussais respecting inflam- 



64 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

mation of the stomach, made such an impres- 
sion on the minds, and so excited the fears of 
many, we are told, as to have greatly multi- 
plied the cases in Paris at the time. Doctor 
John Hunter attributed the heart-disease, by 
which he ultimately died in a fit of passion, to 
his fear of having caught hydrophobia while 
dissecting the body of a patient who died of 
that disease. When Corvisart lectured at Paris 
on the heart, affections of that organ, whether 
real or imaginary, were greatly multiplied. 
He agrees with Testa, another writer on the 
same subject, that the feelings have great in- 
fluence in changing the natural action of the 
heart, and producing disorder. The latter 
author considered the powerful and irregular 
operations of the passions as the most frequent 
cause of organic disease of the heart; which 
explains why this complaint was so much more 
common in Italy during seasons of political 
agitation, and especially in France at the time 
of the Revolution, than at any other period. 
The French Journal of Medicine records the 
case of an aged female, who, from agitation and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



65 



fright, became black as a negro, from head to 
foot, in a few hours. The same cause whitened 
the hair on half the head of a patient in the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, and on the whole head 
of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI., in a 
single night. 

A correspondent of the London Medical 
Times, writing from India, February 19, 1858, 
says that a Sepoy of the Bengal army, having 
been made a prisoner, was brought before the 
authorities for examination. The man trem- 
bled violently; intense horror and despair were 
depicted on his face, and he seemed to be 
almost stupefied with fear. The writer, who 
was present, adds, that within the space of half 
an hour his hair became gray on every portion 
of his head. " When first seen by us, it was 
the glossy jet-black of the Bengalee ; his age 
was twenty-four. The attention of the by- 
standers was first attracted by the Sergeant, 
whose prisoner he was, exclaiming, 'He is 
turning gray!' and I, with several other per- 
sons, watched its progress. Gradually, but 
decidedly, the change went on, and a uniform 
6* 



66 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

gray colour was completed within the period 
above named." 

A few years ago two young men attempted 
to rob an eagle's nest, high up on a cliff on the 
bank of the Hudson river, but several feet 
below the summit. One of them was let down 
in a basket, suspended by a rope, till he came 
opposite the nest. The eagle returned to pro- 
tect her young, and in endeavouring to defend 
himself against her talons, the young man drew 
his knife, and in the contest accidentally cut all 
the strands of the rope but one. Meantime his 
companion was drawing him up to the summit, 
but he was so affected by fear at his perilous 
condition, that the next day his hair became as 
hoary as that of an old man. 

The following case may be adduced, not 
merely for the illustration of our subject, but 
for the wholesome warning that it suggests 
against the vice of which it is a monitory regis- 
ter. A young man, twenty-three years old, 
came from the mines to San Francisco, with 
the intention of soon leaving the latter place 
for home. On the evening of his arrival, he, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



67 



with his companions, visited the gambling sa- 
loons. After watching for a time the varied 
fortunes of a table, supposed to be undergoing 
the process of "tapping," from the continued 
success of those betting against the bank, the 
excitement overcame ,his better judgment, and 
he threw upon the "seven-spot" of a new deal, 
a bag which he said contained eleven hundred 
dollars — his all — the result of two years' priva- 
tion and hard labour — exclaiming, with a voice 
trembling from intense excitement, " My home, 
or the mines!" As the dealer slowly resumed 
the drawing of his cards, his countenance livid 
with fear of the inevitable fate that seems ever 
attendant upon the tapping process when once 
commenced, the writer, who was present, says: 
"I turned my eyes upon the young man who 
had staked his whole gains upon a card. Never 
shall I forget the impression made by his look 
of intense anxiety as he watched the cards as 
they fell from the dealer's hands. All the ener- 
gies of his system seemed concentrated in the 
fixed gaze of his eyes, while the deadly pallor 
of his face bespoke the subdued action of his 



68 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



heart. All around seemed infected with the 
sympathetic powers of the spell; even the 
hitherto successful winners forgot their own 
stakes in the hazardous chance placed upon the 
issue of the bet. The cards are slowly told 
with the precision of high- wrought excitement. 
The seven-spot wins — the spell is broken — re- 
action takes place. The winner exclaims, with 
a deep-drawn sigh, 6 1 will never gamble again!' 
and was carried from the room in a deep 
swoon," from which he did not fully recover 
until the next morning; and then to know that 
the equivalent surrendered for his gain was the 
colour of his hair, now changed to a perfect 
white!" Not less sudden, nor less calamitous 
often, are the effects of 

Grief. Father Chrysostom describes it as 
"a cruel torture of the soul, consuming the 
body, and gnawing the very heart." Melanc- 
thon says, " it strikes the heart, makes it flutter 
and pine away in great pain." It was believed 
that. Philip V. of Spain died suddenly # by the 
breaking of his heart on hearing of the hope- 
less defeat of his army near Plaisance. Dr. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



69 



Zimmermann states, that on opening the king's 
body the heart was found actually burst; so 
that, as Johnson says, the vulgar metaphorical 
expression of a "broken heart," is sometimes 
pathologically correct. What amazing results 
have followed a sudden paroxysm of 

Joy. A woman in the city of New York 
heard that her husband and child were on board 
a ship that had been wrecked. Accustomed to 
go to the wharf from day to day, as if desirous 
of being nearer the beloved objects that were 
supposed to be buried beneath the sea, she sud- 
denly beheld them landing from a vessel that 
had picked them up. The joy on seeing them 
safe was overwhelming. After "the first saluta- 
tion her reason fled, and from that time to the 
present she has not known them. She still 
sits on what she thinks the same rock where 
she used to bewail their fate, wringing her 
hands with ineffable distress ; while every week 
the husband and son visit her, hoping to find 
a gleam of returning memory, but in vain. 

Sophocles, Chilo, Juventius, Talma, and 
Fouquet, are said to have died from the ex- 



70 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



citement of excessive joy. Life was extin- 
guished in a moment by a sudden surcharge 
of the brain with blood, causing apoplexy. A 
man in Richmond, Virginia, succeeded in gain- 
ing a law-suit for eleven hundred dollars, which 
had been in litigation for many years. He was 
so overjoyed at this result, that he was seized 
with apoplexy and died in a few minutes. 
It is said that when the news of Burgoyne's 
surrender at Saratoga, October 17, 1777, 
reached Philadelphia, the door-keeper of Con- 
gress suddenly fell and died of excessive 
joy. How many have witnessed the withering 
power of 

Chagrin, or Shame. Rev. Daniel Baker tells 
the story of a young man, who several years 
ago was charged before an ecclesiastical court 
with an infamous crime; but, as he declared 
the imputation to be slanderous, a committee 
was appointed to investigate the matter, and 
report. " I was present," Mr. Baker says, 
"when, -in the presence of two or three hun- 
dred citizens, the report was made, which 
affirmed that the charge against him was true ! 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



71 



I saw the man the moment his character was 
thus blasted for ever. After one frantic effort, 
with a pistol, to take the life of the person who 
had thus exposed him, he dropped his head, 
and could not bear to look upon man or woman 
any more. Soon after returning to his lodg- 
ings, he laid himself down and died. Shame 
killed him!" How mysterious is the power of 
Sympathy — which one describes as the natu- 
ral check that the Almighty puts upon unchari- 
table self. In spite of themselves, there are 
few that have not felt compassion for others. 
This affords a beautiful proof both of the Di- 
vine beneficence and of the power of the mind 
over the body. It is that inexplicable some- 
thing in our moral and physical structure by 
which a multitude may be apparently possessed 
by the same spirit; the organism of each in- 
stantaneously taking on the same action, sim- 
ply from the mind being devoted to the same 
object. There is no part nor organ of the 
body in which existing uneasiness may not be 
aggravated or relieved, according as the atten- 
tion is directed to the part or diverted from it. 



72 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

"Look at a person when yawning — read, or 
only think of it, and you begin to gape your- 
self. The wheezing and asthmatic struggles 
seen on one man, have been known to produce 
the same symptoms in another. Many obsti- 
nate and distressing coughs have been aggra- 
vated and prolonged by the mere apprehension 
of their return if relieved for a season." The 
physical effects of a 

Morbid Imitative Sympathy, and of Imagi- 
nation, on- the nervous system, are familiarly 
known. They have been displayed in all the 
various extravagancies which, at times, have 
attended the preaching of the gospel, and too 
often impeded its progress. The phenomena of 
this sort which are recorded in Dr. Davidson's 
History of the Presbyterian Church in the 
State of Kentucky, are not less interesting to 
the psychologist and physician than they are to 
the preacher. They were occasioned, doubt- 
less, in part, by an undue excitement of animal 
feeling. But the manifold forms, especially 
the "bodily exercises," by which this excited 
feeling was exhibited, have ever been, to some 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 73 

extent, inexplicable on any known principles 
of mental or physical science. They were clas- 
sified under the significant names of the Fall- 
ing, Rolling, Running, Dancing, Barking, and 
Jerking exercises, each of which was descrip- 
tive of a distinctive sort of bodily movement or 
agitation. We select, for an example, that 
muscular convulsion which was familiarly called 
the Jerks. The first recorded instance of its 
occurrence was at the administration of the 
Lord's Supper in East Tennessee, when several 
hundred of both sexes were affected with this 
strange and involuntary contortion. "The sub- 
ject was instantaneously seized with spasms or 
convulsions in every muscle, nerve, and tendon. 
His head was jerked or thrown from side to 
side with such rapidity that it was impossible 
to distinguish his visage, and the most lively 
fears were entertained lest he should dislocate 
his neck or dash out his brains. His body par- 
took of the same impulse, and was hurried on 
by like jerks over every obstacle— fallen trunks 
of trees, or, in a church, over pews and benches, 
apparently to the most imminent danger of 
7 



74 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

being bruised and mangled. It was useless to 
attempt to hold or restrain him, and the 
paroxysm was permitted gradually to exhaust 
itself. An additional motive for leaving him 
to himself was the superstitious notion that all 
attempt at restraint was 'resisting the Spirit of 
God.' One remarkable feature of these bodily 
affections was, that the very apprehension of an 
attack would often bring it on, in spite of all 
precaution or efforts of the will to prevent it. 
A young man, the son of an elder, who was 
a tanner, feigned sickness on Sabbath morning 
to avoid accompanying the family to a camp- 
meeting. He was left alone in bed, with none 
in the house but a few black children. He 
lay some time triumphing in the success of his 
stratagem, but afraid to rise too soon, lest some 
one might be accidentally lingering, and detect 
him. As he lay quiet with his head covered, 
his thoughts were naturally directed to the 
camp-meeting, and fancy painted an assembled 
multitude, the public worship, and individuals 
falling into the usual spasmodic convulsions. 
All at once he found himself violently jerked 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



75 



out of bed, and dashed round the room and 
against the walls, in a manner altogether be- 
yond his control. Recollecting that praying 
was said to be a good sedative on such occa- 
sions, he resorted to the experiment, and, to 
his great satisfaction, found it successful. He 
returned to bed quite relieved, but only to be 
again affected in the same way, and again 
quieted by the act of prayer. He then dressed 
himself, and to occupy his mind, went to the 
tanyard, and drawing a skin from the vat, 
prepared to take off the hair. He rolled up 
his sleeves, and grasping the knife, was about 
to commence operations, when instantaneously 
the knife was flirted out of his hand, and he 
himself jerked over logs, and against fences, 
as before. Gaining relief by resorting to the 
former remedy, he ventured to resume his 
occupation, and again was interrupted. But 
finding his talisman losing its efficacy, he be- 
gan now to be really alarmed, and quitting the 
yard, he returned to his chamber and betook 
himself to prayer in good earnest. In this 
condition, weeping and crying to God for 



76 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

mercy, he was found by the family on their 
return. The result of this singular incident 
was, that he became a truly converted man, 
and shortly after connected himself with the 
church." 

The same author mentions another example 
of the involuntary nature of these bodily exer- 
cises, in the case of a lady and gentleman of 
some note in the fashionable world, who were 
attracted to the camp-meeting at Cane Ridge 
by mere curiosity. On the way they amused 
themselves with a variety of jokes upon the 
poor deluded creatures who allowed themselves 
to roll screaming in the mud, and crying for 
mercy: and sportively agreed, that if either of 
them should fall, the other should remain, 
and render suitable protection and assistance. 
They had not been long on the ground, when, 
to the consternation of the gentleman, his gay 
companion suddenly dropped; whereupon, in- 
stead of fulfilling his promise, he fled at full 
speed. Flight, however, proved no preserva- 
tive, for he had not gone two hundred yards 
before he was seized in the same way, and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



77 



measured his own length upon the ground; 
while a crowd flocked around him to witness 
his mortification, and offer prayers in his be- 
half. 

Very much like this, and equally mar- 
vellous, were the bodily exercises which at- 
tended the work of grace in Ireland during 
the years 1859 and 1860. Dr. Macnaughton 
says, that " persons would be suddenly struck 
down as if they were dead; and not under the 
influence of exciting appeals made to them, for 
the same things happened to them when they 
were alone, and no person speaking to them." 

Instructive exemplifications of our subject, 
concerning the power of the imagination, 
might be taken from the records of empiricism. 
Every feat of medical charlatanry has been 
a signal illustration of the strong reciprocal 
influence of the mind and the body. In the 
early part of the present century, a native of 
New England reaped a harvest of more than 
ten thousand pounds sterling from grateful, 
but deluded patients in Great Britain, whom 
he had relieved of distressing maladies by 



78 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

means of his "metallic tractors." These were 
two small pieces of metal of different kinds, 
which received their name from being drawn 
slightly over the part of the body affected, and 
which were said to attract the disease to the 
surface. That these marvellous cures were 
produced by the imagination of the sufferer, 
was proved by Dr. Haygarth, who had a couple . 
of wooden tractors made, to resemble in ap- 
pearance the metallic. The tractors of both 
sorts were afterwards applied to five patients, 
and the same benefit followed, whether the 
instrument used was made of wood or of iron ; 
thus demonstrating the whole to be a grand 
imposture. It was a case which clearly be* 
longs to the same category with that related 
of Dr. Woodhouse, who tested the power of 
imagination on certain persons, who, when 
nitrous oxide attracted great attention, were 
anxious to breathe the gas. He administered 
to them ten gallons of atmospherical air, in 
doses of from four to six quarts. Impressed 
with the idea that they were inhaling the. 
exhilarating gas, they soon began to exhibit 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



79 



the usual quickness of pulse, vertigo, ringing 
in the ears, difficulty of breathing, faintness, 
weakness of the knees, and nausea, which 
lasted from six to eight hours. 

Bartholini, a famous physician, born at 
Copenhagen (1616,) declares that he once, by 
mistake, gave a patient a bottle of mere water 
# instead of another bottle of liquor designed 
for an emetic, and that the patient's imagina- 
tion was so affected by the expectation, that 
the water produced the effect he intended. 

Franciscus Borri, born at Milan in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century, was said 
to cure all diseases, and so great was his repu- 
tation, that patients were carried to him from 
a great distance. But when it came to be 
observed that he cured only those who had a 
strong imagination, his credit sunk at once, 
and he worked no more wonders. A most 
remarkable example of the irresistible power of 
a disquieted mind is mentioned by Gregorius 
Leti, in his history of the Duke D'Ossuna. 
He tells us that a rich Neapolitan merchant, 
Jacob Morel, prided himself in not having 



80 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE ~ 

once set his foot out of the city during forty- 
eight years. This coming to the ears of the 
Duke, Morel had notice sent to him that he 
was to take no journey out of the kingdom 
under the penalty of ten thousand crowns. 
The , merchant smiled at receiving the order, 
but afterwards, not being able to fathom the 
reason of such a prohibition, grew so uneasy, „ 
that he paid the fine, and took a little trip out 
of the kingdom. 

Selden, in his " Table-Talk," mentions the 
case of a gentleman that had been in a pro- 
longed state of melancholy, whose malady I 
relieved, he says, by the following very simple 
expedient. "Perceiving his great confidence 
in me, and knowing that his complaint was 
rather fancied than real, I desired him to let 
me alone for a short time, and then come 
again, when I would give him directions, 
which, if faithfully followed, would cure him. 
In the meantime I got a card, and wrapped it 
in a handsome piece of taffeta, to which I put 
strings, and when he came, gave it to him to 
hang about his neck. At the same time I 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



81 



charged him not to disorder himself with im- 
proper eating and drinking; take very little 
supper, attend as usual to his devotional duties 
as he went to bed, and in a short time he 
would be well. Three or four days after, I 
called upon him, and found him very much 
better, but perceiving that there was still a 
remnant of his mental disquiet, I gave him 
another string to hang about his neck. Three 
days after, he came to my office in the Temple, 
and professed that he was as well as he had 
ever been in his life, and thanked me for the 
care I had taken of him. The gentleman lived 
many years, and was never troubled after." 

Similar examples of the reflected influences 
of the mind and body on each other might be 
easily adduced to a much greater extent. "We 
have indulged in our selections already to a 
profuseness, perhaps, but the truths they illus- 
trate cannot be presented in too many phases, 
nor too deeply impressed. It is a branch of 
the great subject of Moral Therapeutics, which 
is too little studied by those who are charged 
with the health of either the body or of the 



82 .INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

soul. They may be read with advantage by 
many, as interesting psychological facts, and at 
the same time help to prepare them for the 
more interesting part of our inquiry — the illus- 
trations of this connection between the outer 
and inner man, as furnished by 

in. CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

We have already said, that it is a subject 
which is worthy the attention of all, whatever 
their character, moral or religious; but it is 
more particularly the case of the latter, that 
this investigation contemplates. It is to show 
the influence of the mind and feelings upon 
the body, as well as the constant and yet often 
unsuspected actings of the flesh, with its un- 
numbered infirmities, upon the spirit; and that 
the devotional exercises of the latter are greatly 
affected by the physical condition of the former. 
And if the foregoing observations have been 
uninteresting, or unintelligible to any, there 
are those who will understand us now. Here 
we strike a chord which will vibrate more or 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



83 



less in every changed heart that has been given 
to the study of its own exercises. No person 
accnstomed to notice his various religious 
frames, can have failed to perceive that these 
are closely allied to what is usually denomi- 
nated his " constitution." Is there such a 
blending of the juices of the animal economy 
as to produce what is called a nervous tempera- 
ment, or that excess of bile which makes it 
melancholy'? Is the man gentle or serene, 
sanguine or timid, cheerful or sad, you will find 
that these idiosyncrasies will not be merged 
and lost in the changes wrought by regene- 
rating grace. His religion will not so neutralize 
and remove the cause of his lowness of spirits, 
his timidity, or whatever it may be that is 
peculiar to his nature, as to make him at all 
times cheerful and self-possessed. The bashful 
man will be a bashful Christian; and the bold 
man, constitutionally, will be bold in a state of 
grace. After all that the Spirit has accom- 
plished in each, it will still be true in all, that 
the religious character will be tinctured by that 
of the natural man, as the liquor put into an 



84 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

old cask commonly receives a strong tang from 
the vessel. 

Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem 
Testa diu. 

The odours of the wine, that first shall stain 
The virgin vessel, it shall long retain. — Francis. 

In this respect, the Spirit's operation on the 
soul has been happily compared to the work of 
a sculptor, who makes a statue of wood, of 
stone, or of marble, indifferently, according to 
the material put into his hand. So the Spirit, 
in forming the new man, still retains so much 
of the old, as to make it evident what is the 
rock from which he was hewn. Nor is it a less 
interesting fact, that this gracious influence is 
so exerted in the various conditions of life 
where it is felt, as to qualify the soul for the 
appropriate duties of its particular station. 
Does regenerating grace find a man in high 
life or humble, in Caesar's household, among 
the fishermen of Galilee, or the servants of 
Philemon, it requires no change in his place, 
but works a - change on his heart, and gives 
new help to discharge his duties better. The 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 85 

same Holy Spirit who makes a Christian master 
gentle and prudent in commanding, makes a 
Christian servant faithful and cheerful in obey- 
ing. As the astrologers said of Cyrus, that the 
same stars which made him to be chosen king 
amongst the armies of men when he came to 
be a man, made him to be chosen king among 
the shepherds' children when he was a child. 
In rearing the New Testament temple of the 
Redeemer on earth, there is the same occasion 
for various gifts and kinds of service that there 
was in the magnificent structure of Solomon. 
And hence the innocent and useful differences 
between men, in their fallen state, are pre- 
served and turned to a profitable account in 
their recovery. See a familiar illustration of 
this in the original teachers of the gospel, 
or the twelve apostles. Simon Peter was by 
natural temperament ardent, sanguine, precipi- 
tate; and this characteristic of the natural man 
is continually betraying itself after his conver- 
sion. You observe it in his conversations with 
his Master; his bold professions, hasty pro- 
mises, which opened the way for his sifting by 
8 



86 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Satan, and his lamentable fall. After the resur- 
rection, see him running with John to visit the 
sepulchre; and while his timid and cautious 
companion stoops down at- first, and only ven- 
tures to look into the place, the intrepid Peter 
rushes by, and plunges into the gloomy abode 
of the dead, examines the very spot where the 
sacred dust had rested, and the linen clothes 
in which it had been wrapped. Both of them 
regenerated men, and men perhaps of equal 
piety; but very unlike before their conversion, 
and scarcely more alike afterwards. Dr. Mason 
used to say, that the grace which would make 
John appear like an angel, would be only just 
enough to keep Peter from knocking a man 
down. 

Look next at Paul, whose lofty bearing, and 
undaunted courage by nature, was not a whit 
impaired, but only sanctified by grace, and 
retained to the end of his life. See Luther and 
Melancthon, as opposite in their Christian cha- 
racter as they were in their original tempera- 
ment. "Melancthon," Cecil says, "is like a 
snail with his couple of horns; he puts out his 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



87 



horns, and feels — and feels — and feels. No 
education could have rendered these two men 
alike. Their difference began in the womb. 
Luther dashes in saying his things; Melanc- 
thon must go round about." The same Divine 
influence had wrought effectually on the heart 
of both; yet, like the statue of which we 
spoke, the image corresponded to the material 
out of which it had been constructed. That 
any amount of spiritual influence should ever 
destroy these physical characteristics, and make 
men of such divers temperaments alike, is to 
be expected no more than that it should make 
them of one stature, or give them the same 
features or complexion. 

It will be recollected how Caesar recognizes 
the influence of temperament, when he ob- 
jected to Cassius, because he was "lean and 
thought too much." He wished to have 
around him 

Sleek headed men, and such as sleep o' nights. 
Would he were fatter. 

Such men as Ceesar feared are usually 
"lean," because their "too much" thinking 



88 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

developes the brain and the nervous system at 
the expense of some function in the animal or 
organic. Men of this sort will be found thin 
and sallow, with weak digestion, and quickness 
or irritability of nerve, like Lord Wellington 
or Bonaparte, till the latter became bloated by 
disease. Martin Luther's amazing executive 
powers were as closely connected with his 
physical qualities as with his moral. To the 
robustness, health, and industry of a German, 
nature seems to have added the spirit and 
vivacity of an Italian. His great mind was 
lodged in a body which seemed to have been 
created for just such a tenant. His frame was 
large, well-proportioned, athletic, and capable 
of enduring, without fatigue, any amount of 
labour and privation. Dr. Cox is reported to 
have said, that it was well that Luther was 
not a dyspeptic, for the Reformation would 
have been delayed had he wanted a good 
digestion. Sometimes when he was deeply 
engaged in business, he would eat no food for 
days. Tischer says, it often happened that he 
locked himself in his study for several days 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 89 

and nights, taking no other nourishment than 
bread and water, that he might the more unin- 
terruptedly pursue his labours. His good wife, 
willingly as she would have objected to such 
intense application, did not dare to oppose the 
zeal excited by such a sense of duty* But on 
a certain occasion he locked himself up three 
days and three nights, and did not suffer him- 
self to be disturbed by her repeated calls at 
the door. Being almost beside herself through 
fear, by the assistance of several persons she at 
length broke open the locked door, and found 
her husband sitting at his writing desk, deep- 
ly wrapped in reflection about the exposition 
of some passage of Scripture. He was much 
displeased at the interruption of his studies; 
and when reproved by his wife for having 
given her so much anxiety, he very calmly 
replied, " Do you not know that I must work 
while it is day, for the night cometh when no 
man can work." That with such habits of 
living, and his prodigious mental and bodily 
labour, he should reach the age of sixty-three, 
is evidence that he possessed a constitution of 
8* 



90 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



extraordinary powers of endurance. Nor need 
we be surprised to read in his private diary, 
what was not suspected by many of his inti- 
mate friends, that he was not so free, as is 
commonly supposed, from those bodily ailments 
which sg beset and embitter the life of the 
sedentary and the studious. 

But there are other, and in some respects, 
more marked and painful illustrations, in the 
morbid experience of some Christians, which 
are at once an effect and a symptom of the 
state of their health. Rev. Timothy Rogers, 
a minister in London near the close of the 
seventeenth century, who was happily delivered 
from long affliction and great spiritual distress 
produced by this cause, describes the condition 
as one which is in every respect sad and over- 
whelming. In a letter to a friend he says, It 
is a state of darkness that has no discernible 
beams of light. It is a land of darkness, on 
which no sun at all seems to shine. It does 
generally, indeed, first begin at the body, and 
then conveys its venom to the mind; and if 
anything could be found that might keep the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



91 



blood and spirits in their due temper and 
motion, this would obstruct its further pro- 
gress, and in a great measure keep the soul 
clear. How many belong to that class who 
are familiarly said to look only at the dark 
side of every object, and are unwilling to 
engage in any enterprise, from an anticipa- 
tion of its failure. Whether the happiness of 
this world or the next be their pursuit, the 
prospect is cheered by scarcely a ray of hope. 
Such a tendency to gloom is a thorn in the 
flesh, by which they are often tormented; nor 
is any class more exposed to the bufferings 
of this minister of Satan, than the teachers 
of religion. How often do we witness the sad 
spectacle of those whose manifold bodily infir- 
mities, brought on by sedentary habits, great 
anxiety, or excessive study and exhaustion of 
sensorial power, defraud them of all the conso- 
lations of that benignant system of faith which 
they are enabled to expound so successfully to 
others. Instead of an open, cheerful expres- 
sion of countenance, we often see a wrinkled, 
contracted, sinister look, which speaks any- 



92 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

thing but in favour , of the benign religion of 
the gospel. Thus, Christianity itself is made 
to suffer from the physical sufferings of its 
professors and expounders. The light-minded 
and thoughtless imbibe a prejudice against it, 
from observing the care-worn and sorrowful 
features of some of its advocates. They think 
it to be a legitimate effect of their principles, 
and are made to shun the places, and books, 
and people, whose influence appears to be so 
detrimental to all earthly enjoyment. Unhap- 
pily, these outward tokens of disquietude are 
but too significant of what is passing within. 
If the face be covered with gloom, it is only 
an index of the state of such a Christian's 
heart, when in the retirement of his closet he 
pours out its exercises in lamentations, and 
confessions of sin, and supplications for relief. 
At one time, he feels that he has grieved the 
Spirit, that his best services are only hypo- 
critical forms, and surely God has forsaken 
him. His heart appears like the nether mill- 
stone, and his bosom the cage of every unclean 
bird. The arrows of the Almighty are within 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



93 



him, the poison whereof drinketh up his spirit, 
and the terrors of God do set themselves in 
array against him. Again the scene is wholly 
changed; the turbid current of his thoughts 
has become clear as crystal. The rain is over 
and gone, and the time of the singing of birds 
is come. The change in his exercises is like 
the transition from the terrific tempest to the 
serene sky, and air, and pleasant sun, that fol- 
low it. Or ever he is aware, his sold makes him 
like the chariots of Amminadib. His doubts are 
solved, his fears are gone, and his present joys 
perhaps, are in proportion to his previous sad- 
ness. He is brought into Christ's banqueting 
house, and the banner over him is love. He is 
staged with flagons and comforted with apples, 
and restored to the joys of salvation. 

That such spiritual fluctuations as these, to 
which so many Christians are subject, are very 
often produced by physical causes, is as capable 
of proof, as it is that an excited pulse and 
increased heat are symptoms of fever. They 
are the reflected influence of some bodily mal- 
ady upon the soul. They arise, as Rev. Dr. 



94 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 



J. McDuff says, from a diseased body, an 
overstrung mind — a succession of calamities, 
weakening and impairing the nervous system. 
We know how susceptible are the body and 
mind together, of being affected by external 
influences. Of that constitution which, in our 
ignorance, we call union of soul and body, we 
know little respecting what is cause and what 
is effect. We would fain believe that the 
mind has power over the body; but it is just 
as true that the body rules the mind. Causes 
apparently the most trivial — a heated room, 
want of exercise, a sunless day, a northern 
aspect — will make all the difference between 
happiness and unhappiness ; between faith and 
doubt; between courage and indecision. To 
our fancy there is something humiliating in 
being thus at the mercy of our animal or- 
ganism. We would gladly find nobler causes 
for our emotions. But many of those sighs 
and tears, and morbid, depressed feelings which 
Christians speak of as the result of spiritual 
darkness and the desertion of God, are merely 
the result of physical derangement; the penalty 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 95 

often for the violation of the laws of health. 
The atmosphere we breathe is enough to ac- 
count for them. They come and go, rise and 
fall, with the mercury in the tube. These are 
cases not for the spiritual, but for the bodily 
physician. Their cure is in attendance to the 
usual laws and prescriptions which regulate 
the healthy action of the bodily functions. 
We once knew a man of superior natural gifts 
and piety, an officer of the church, who suf- 
fered occasionally from such a cause. The 
effect on his devotional feelings was so marked, 
that you could discover the state of his health 
in his prayers. They were always excellent 
and edifying, yet there was at times a subdued 
manner, or a sadness, which indicated the in- 
fluence of bodily infirmity, and the struggle of 
the soul to resist its tendency. 

Many have discovered that their periods of 
spiritual depression are always contempora- 
neous with periodical changes in their physical 
condition, or with that sort of indisposition 
which proceeds from gastric derangement or an 
affection of the liver. How many thousands 



96 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

are daily affected by changes in the atmos- 
phere, scarcely less than was Dr. Francia, Dic- 
tator of Paraguay, whose most extravagant 
outbreaks of passion, and cruel exertions of 
despotic power, generally occurred during his 
seasons of hypochondria, which were most fre- 
quent when the wind was north-east, but which 
ended with a change to south-west, when he 
would begin to sing and laugh to himself, and 
was readily accessible. Sir Woodbine Parish 
informs us, in his narrative of a visit to Buenos 
Ayres, that a sort of moral derangement pre- 
vails when the wind blows from the north ; 
that quarrels and bloodshed are much more 
frequent at such times than at any other. He 
relates that a gentleman of amiable manners 
under ordinary circumstances, was so affected 
by this wind, that whenever it prevailed, he 
would quarrel with any one he met; and he 
was at last executed for murder, after having 
been engaged in street-fights, with knives, at 
least twenty times. The influence of the east 
wind on Pev. Dr. Archibald Alexander is well 
remembered by all who knew him. This was 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



97 



often a time of great spiritual depression, 
which was little alleviated by his knowledge 
of the cause. He once remarked to a friend 
that " it was merciless in Satan to assail him 
when the wind was blowing from the east." 
And when a student asked him if he always 
enjoyed a full assurance of faith, "Yes," he 
replied, in a manner peculiar to himself, " ex- 
cept when the east wind blows." 

The cases in which this sort of morbid suf- 
fering is exemplified are so numerous, that 
their name is Legion. They find that their 
state while here "is a conjunction of their 
soul to a frail distempered body, and so near 
a conjunction, that the actions of the soul must 
have great dependence on the body. Its ap- 
prehensions of spiritual good are limited by 
the frailty of the body, and the soul can go 
no higher than the body will allow." We 
have known instances in which the seasons of 
spiritual joy and depression alternated like an 
intermittent disease, coming and departing at 
regular intervals. In the church of the late 
Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, New York, was an 
9 



98 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

excellent female, whose mind was found to 
be shrouded in darkness and gloom. After 
many conversations held at different times for 
months, one day I called upon her, he says, 
" and to my surprise found her calm, and that 
her distress of spirit had given place to glad- 
ness. But three days after this, her light had 
departed, and she had relapsed into her former 
state of despair. Not long after, she became 
hopeful and happy for a little season, and then 
as depressed and sorrowful as ever. These 
alternations from gloom to gladness were inex- 
plicable, until I was able to connect them with 
the state of her bodily health. When I men- 
tioned the cause to her, she admitted the coin- 
cidence between the coming of pain into her 
head and the departure of her spiritual peace; 
but this explanation seemed credible only dur- 
ing her intervals of peace, which at length 
became short. In the morning she was always 
hopeful, but every afternoon in despair. In 
the morning she believed that her afternoon 
distress was caused by her bodily infirmity, 
but would entirely disbelieve it in the after- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



99 



noon. At length the morbid bodily state 
which had so affected her mind was changed. 
The light of Christian hope and joy were no 
longer withdrawn. Her death was peaceful, 
without a doubt of a happy immortality." 

During Mr. Cecil's protracted sickness of 
three years, the state of his mind fluctuated 
with his malady. Its principal effect was ap- 
parent in throwing a cloud over his comfort. 
He was precisely like a man laden with a 
heavy weight. As the load was lightened, he 
began to think, feel, exert and enjoy himself 
in his natural manner. When the burden was 
increased, he sank down again under the op- 
pression. Sometimes these intermissions are 
much more prolonged, as in the case of the 
late excellent and venerable Dr. James Hall, 
of North Carolina, who was of a melancholy 
temperament; and after finishing his education 
at Princeton, he fell into a gloomy dejection, 
which interrupted his studies and labours for 
more than a year. After his restoration he 
laboured successfully and comfortably in the 
ministry many years, even to old age; but at 



100 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

last was overtaken again, and entirely over- 
whelmed by this terrible malady. Of all 
men that I ever saw, Dr. A. Alexander says, 
he had the tenderest sympathy with persons 
labouring under religious despondency. When 
on a journey, I have known him to travel 
miles out of his way to converse with a suf- 
ferer of this kind; and his manner was most 
tender and affectionate in speaking to such. 

A venerable clergyman, who had suffered 
greatly from nervous affections, discovered this 
to be characteristic of his own experience ; that 
when the period of gloom and distress did not 
terminate for two or three weeks, it would in 
the meantime recur only every other day. But 
the more common cases are those in which 
the cloud, when gathered, remains suspended 
and unmoved for days or weeks, with scarcely 
a gleam of sunshine. Such a sufferer was the 
late eminently learned and pious Isaac Milner, 
Dean of Carlisle, whose extraordinary talents 
and attainments in science were conceded by 
all, and whose genuine piety was questioned 
by none but himself. And yet, while the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



101 



source of so much light and spiritual instruc- 
tion to others, he was often an opaque and 
cheerless body to himself. "Though I have 
endeavoured to discharge my duty as well as 
I could," he writes to Mr. Wilberforce, "yet 
sadness and melancholy of heart stick close 
by and increase upon me. I tell nobody, but 
I am very much sunk indeed, and I wish I 
could have the relief of weeping as I used to 
do." Again, in writing to another, a clerical 
friend, he says, "My views have of late been 
exceedingly dark and distressing; in a word, 
Almighty God seems to hide his face. I en- 
trust the secret hardly to any earthly being. 
I know not what will become of me. There 
is doubtless a good deal of bodily affection 
mingled with this, but it is not all so. I bless 
God, however, that I never lose sight of the 
cross; and though I should die without seeing 
any personal interest in the Redeemer's merits, 
I think, I hope, that I should be found at his 
feet. I will thank you for a word at your 
leisure. My door is bolted at the time of my 

writing this, for I am full of tears." Such 
9 # 



102 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

spiritual sadness is easily accounted for, when 
it is understood that Dr. Milner was for up- 
wards of forty years a victim of some of the 
most distressing complaints that flesh is heir 
to. Spasms in his stomach, severe and unin- 
terrupted headaches, oppression of the breath, 
broken slumbers, disturbed by frightful dreams, 
were among the diseases which caused his 
physicians to tell him, many years before his 
death, that with such a pulse as his, a man's 
life was not worth one minute. 

Another example is furnished by Richard 
Baxter, in whose practical and devotional wri- 
tings it is easy to discover the constitutional 
habits and qualities of the man. No person, 
not inspired, ever wrote more graphically of 
heaven and hell, as if he had visited both, and 
had come back to the earth again to exhort 
men to seek the one and escape the other. 
But, notwithstanding his pre-eminent piety, 
during his early years his mind was greatly 
troubled with doubts about his own salvation, 
promoted, his biographer says, by the par- 
ticular cast of his mind, and the state of his 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



103 



body. And, though habitually under the go- 
vernment of religious principles, it is well 
known that he had certain besetting infirmi- 
ties of temper, which are among the most 
common diagnostics of what were some of his 
manifold diseases. The late Dr. Payson was 
another, whose vibrations of Christian feeling, 
from the joyous to the sad, the cheerful to the 
desponding and melancholy, are scarcely less 
notorious than were his uncommon zeal and 
ministerial success. The cause is at once 
explained, when his biographer tells us that 
his physical conformation was of a very deli- 
cate structure, extremely sensitive, and easily 
excited, so that nervous irritability and conse- 
quent depression were an ingredient in his 
nature. Hence, he adds, we have seen him 
writing bitter things against himself, for causes 
which, with a different temperament, would 
have given him little uneasiness. The case of 
David Brainerd, the apostolic missionary, is in 
some respects more marked and instructive on 
this subject than even Pay son's. But it is 
easy to make the almost opposite and contra- 



104 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

dictory details of his diary harmonize with one 
another, and both with eminent godliness, 
when the writer of his Memoirs, President 
Edwards, tells us of his frail health, and of 
his constitutional proneness to dejection and 
melancholy. His willing spirit would have 
made him a rival of Paul, but under the weak- 
ness of his flesh he sunk before he reached 
the age of thirty. 

Such illustrations need not be multiplied, 
and yet we cannot forbear to advert, for a 
moment, before we pass on, to the touching 
case of one in whose character there is an 
abiding interest, which affords a guaranty that 
the repetition, even of that which is familiarly 
known, will not be tiresome. And perhaps 
within the range of casuistic research, we could 
not find a more affecting instance of morbid 
religious affection, than that of Cowper. How 
long his mind was shrouded in darkness, and 
racked with the most fearful forebodings, is as 
widely known as is his name. In one of his 
somewhat playful moods, when writing to the 
Rev. John Newton, he says, "My thoughts are 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



105 



clad in a sober livery, for the most part as grave 
as that of a bishop's servant. They turn, too, 
upon spiritual subjects; but the tallest fellow, 
and the loudest among them all, is he who is 
continually crying out with a loud voice, Actum 
est de te, periisti — It is all over, you are lost." 
But what was the state of his mind for many 
years, is nowhere described in more affecting 
terms than in the last original poem which he 
ever wrote, and which he called the Castaway. 
It was founded on .an incident mentioned in 
Lord Anson's Voyages, which he had read 
many years before, though the concluding stan- 
zas show that the real subject of his muse 
was not the sufferer mentioned by Anson: for 
having described the case of the unhappy 
mariner, his being washed headlong from on 
board, 

Of friends, of hope, of all bereft; 

his sinking beneath the "whelming brine;" 
then rising to the surface, struggling among 
the waves, his crying for help, the efforts made 
to save him, the mournful sound of his voice, 
heard in every blast by his comrades, as the 



106 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 



ship was driven farther and farther from him, 
tiUthey 

Could catch the sound no more ; 

when, overcome at length, and exhausted, he 
sunk; the poet then adds: 

I therefore purpose not, or dream, 

Descanting on his fate, \ 

To give the melancholy theme 

A more enduring date: 
But misery delights to trace 
Its semblance in another's case. 

No voice divine the storm allayed, 

No light propitious shone; 

When snatched from all effectual aid, 

We perish'd each alone; 
But I beneath a rougher sea, 
Am whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he. 

That the cause of Cowper's spiritual depres- 
sion was disease, has been abundantly proved 
to all, unless it be those " who would far sooner 
tolerate a poet's being a madman than his 
being a saint." His despondency was produced 
by physical causes, which could not be removed 
by reasoning, any more than a headache or a 
paroxysm of the gout. So the sufferer himself 
appears to believe, as is more than implied in 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



107 



the following extract from one of his letters: — 
"The mind of man is not a fountain, but a 
cistern, and mine, God knows, a broken one. 
Sally Perry's case has given us much concern; 
I have no doubt it is distemper. But distresses 
of mind that are occasioned by distemper are 
the most difficult of all to deal with. They 
refuse all consolation; they will hear no reason. 
God only, by his own immediate impressions, 
can relieve them, as after an experience of thir- 
teen years' misery I can abundantly testify." 
Like other valetudinarians of a particular class, 
his nerves were as sensitive to atmospheric 
changes as is the mercury of the barometer. 
He was joyful or sad, as the day was serene or 
cloudy. "I rise cheerless or distressed," says 
he to one of his friends, "and brighten as the 
sun goes on." He had his four seasons of feel- 
ing, as the revolving earth described the four 
grand stages of the sun's progress in the eclip- 
tic. Thus, in another of his letters, he says, 
"I now see a long winter before me, and am to 
get through it as I can. I know the ground 
before I tread upon it: it is hollow; it is agi- 



108 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tated; it suffers shocks in every direction; it 
is like the soil of Calabria — all whirlpool and 
undulation. But I must reel through it; at 
least, if I be not swallowed up by the way." 

In a brief notice of Cowper by Mr. Cecil, 
he alludes to an "unfounded report" in circu- 
lation, that the poet's melancholy was derived 
from his residence and connection at Olney. 
The fact, however, Mr. Cecil says, was just 
the reverse, as was attested both by respect- 
able living witnesses, and by manuscripts of 
Cowper's own writing at the calmest period 
of his life. Many years before, and shortly 
after he began the study of law, he had a 
fearful attack, which was alleviated by reading 
the Gothic and uncouth poems of pious George 
Herbert. This relief, however, was only for 
a season. His thoughts were constantly tend- 
ing back towards the same turbid channel 
from which they had been diverted. Then 
again he would be tempted to all sorts of 
evil — to murmuring against Providence, scep- 
ticism, disgust of life, and even to suicide. 
And yet, whenever relief came, even for a sea- 



ON RELIGIOUS .EXPERIENCE. 109 

son, it was attended with a renewed interest 
in the Bible, and a lively faith in its distin- 
guishing doctrines. The longest and happiest 
period of his life was at St. Albans, under 
the care of Dr. Cotton, a physician as capable 
of administering to the spiritual as to the 
natural maladies of his patients. The vast 
black wall which he represented as visibly 
erected between himself and heaven, Dr. Moore 
says, was some impediment to the right action 
of his brain in relation to' thought and sight. 
His disease was kept up by monotony and 
medicine. There were none but quackish at- 
tempts at cure, except while under the care 
of Dr. Cotton, who for a time relieved, and, 
had his advice been properly followed out, 
would have probably cured him. It was from 
his treatment, that Cowper first obtained a 
clear view of those sublime and animating 
truths which so distinguished and exalted his 
future strains as a poet. Here also he re- 
ceived that settled tranquillity and peace, 
which he enjoyed for several years afterwards. 
So far, therefore, was his constitutional malady 
10 



110 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



from being produced or increased by his evan- 
gelical connections, either at St. Albans or 
at Olney, he seems never to have had any 
settled peace but from the truths learned in 
these societies. It appears that among them 
alone he found the only sunshine he ever 
enjoyed through "the cloudy day of his 
afflicted life." While residing with this excel- 
lent friend, his distress was for a long time 
entirely removed by the passage in Romans: 
Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation, 
through faith in his blood, to declare his right- 
eousness for the remission of sins that are past. 
In this scripture he saw the remedy which 
God provides for the relief of a guilty con- 
science, with such clearness, that, for several 
years after, his heart was filled with love, and 
his life occupied with prayer, praise, and doing 
good to all as he had opportunity. Mr. New- 
ton told me, Cecil says, that from Cowper's 
first coming to Olney, it was observed he 
had studied his Bible with such advantage, 
and was so well acquainted with its design, 
that not only his troubles were removed, but 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



Ill 



to the end of his life he never had clearer 
views of the peculiar doctrines of the gospel 
than now when he first became an habitual 
hearer of them. That during this period the 
inseparable attendants of a lively faith ap- 
peared, by his exerting himself to the utmost 
of his power in every benevolent service he 
could render to his poor neighbours ; and that 
Mr. Newton used to consider him as a sort 
of curate, from his constant attendance upon 
the sick and afflicted in that large and neces- 
sitous parish. 



112 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



\ 



CHAPTER II. 

USES OP KNOWLEDGE ON THIS SUBJECT. 

I was a stricken deer, that left the herd 

Long since. With many an arrow deep infixed 

My panting sides were charged. — Cowper. 

Though the character of this discussion, as 
well as its limited scope, have precluded many 
important remarks which come within the pro- 
vince of the physiologist, yet much that might 
be written is rendered unnecessary by a know- 
ledge which many derive from their own expe- 
rience. It is a subject which, as we have said 
before, is too little examined and understood. 
Many of our young preachers, Dr. Alexander 
says, in his instructive book on Religious Expe- 
rience, " when they go forth on their important 
errand, are poorly qualified to direct the doubt- 
ing conscience, or to administer safe consola- 
tion to the troubled in spirit. And in modern 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 113 

preaching there is little account made of the 
various distressing cases of deep affliction under 
which many serious persons are suffering. To 
no small proportion of the religious, both teach- 
ers and people, it seems to be a profound 
secret, how much the exercises of a changed 
heart may be affected by the health or the con- 
dition of the body." They cannot understand 
how a man's brain and nervous system may so 
suffer from faults in his digestive organs, as to 
produce irritability of temper, unsteadiness in 
any pursuit or application, distrust of friends, 
fear of evil tidings, and doubts concerning his 
own salvation. These are commonly regarded 
as moral affections, whereas they are in reality 
physical evils, which are to be remedied or 
removed by physical means. They are as legi- 
timately symptoms of disease as is nausea, dim- 
ness of vision, or headache. And is a man 
unable to judge himself, much less is he quali- 
fied to meet the numerous cases that are almost 
daily presented in an extensive pastoral charge, 
when unskilled to distinguish, with some de- 
gree of accuracy, between influences which 
10* 



114 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

proceed from the body, and the principles, dis- 
position, and state of the soul; As a part of 
his furniture for some of the most responsible 
labours of his calling, he needs a thorough 
acquaintance with a subject so closely con- 
nected with Christian experience. 

Among the counsellors who so much aided 
the Rev. Timothy Rogers in his period of spi- 
ritual darkness, he quotes old Mr. Greenham 
as saying "that there is a great deal of wisdom 
requisite to consider both the state of the body 
and of the soul. If, a man that is troubled in 
conscience comes to a minister, it may be he 
will look all to the soul, and nothing to the 
body; if he cometh to a physician, he con- 
sidered the body, and neglecteth the soul. 
For my part, I would never have the physi- 
cian's counsel despised, nor the labour of the 
minister neglected; because the soul and body 
dwelling together, it is convenient that as the 
soul should be cured by the word, by prayer, 
by fasting, or by comforting, so the body must 
be brought into some temperature by physic 
and diet, by harmless diversions, and such like 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



115 



ways — providing always, that it be so done in 
the fear of God, as not to think by these ordi- 
nary means quite to smother or evade our 
troubles, but to use them as preparatives, 
whereby our souls may be made more capable 
of the spiritual methods that are to follow 
afterwards." 

The practical uses of the knowledge of which 
we come to speak now, cannot be fully enu- 
merated, nor adequately described. As the 
apostle says of 'the inspired truth which he 
commends to Timothy, we would say, that it 
"is profitable for" 

Doctrine. 

"We mean to say, that here is presented a 
theory in casuistic divinity which solves in- 
numerable cases of constant occurrence, by 
which many are often confounded without it. 
It is admitted that there is a difficulty to be 
encountered, in turning such doctrine on the 
subject of our spiritual maladies to a benefi- 
cial result, on account of the inability to con- 
vince the sufferer of the real cause of his 
despondency. He seems to lack the capacity 



116 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of perceiving, or of applying the sort of truth 
which his case requires, however plainly it 
may be set before him; for, as President 
Edwards observes, in speaking of Brainerd, it 
is rare that melancholy people are sensible of 
their own disease — and that such things are 
to be ascribed to it as are undoubtedly its 
genuine fruits or effects. Otherwise we should 
be amazed at the perplexity and disconsolate- 
ness of some excellent characters, and the 
readiness with which they refuse to be com- 
forted. Even the acute and discriminating 
Dr. Rush, so skilful in explaining and reliev- 
ing the maladies of others, was utterly de- 
ceived in relation to his own. His Essay on 
the Influence of Physical Causes upon the 
Moral Faculty, evinces mature reflection, and 
accurate knowledge on this subject; and yet, 
when, in a state of religious despondency him- 
self, he was assured by his pastor that it was 
a symptom of disease, he could not believe it. 
Nor did he become fully convinced that the 
cause of his spiritual distress was physical, 
until it had been removed by the improvement 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



117 



of his general health. Indeed it is commonly 
fonnd, that where mental depression results 
from impaired health, our attempts to relieve 
the mind by counsel tend rather to aggravate 
its sorrow, so long as the physical cause re- 
mains unmitigated. The Rev. Thomas Boston 
was, at one time, in such a state of doubt and 
spiritual depression during his ministry, with- 
out perceiving the cause, that he. was tempted 
to give it up. But although this eminent 
Christian scholar was in so great darkness 
himself, he was a burning and a shining light 
to others. His exposition of Providence, under 
the quaint title of "Crook in the Lot," sur- 
passes any work of the kind in our language. 
"I do not know that I could point out a 
work," Dr. A. Alexander says, "which is so 
well adapted to reconcile the afflicted saint to 
his lot in this world, and help him to improve 
the dealings of Providence towards him, espe- 
cially in the 'dark and cloudy day' of adver- 
sity." 

A late preacher, well known by his manifold 
useful labours, writes in his diary: — "Many of 



118 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

my people, and especially females, talk thus to 
me — 'I am under continual distress of mind; 
I can lay hold of no permanent ground of 
peace. If L seem to get a little, it is soon 
gone again. I am out at sea, without compass 
or anchor. My heart sinks, my spirit faints, 
my knees tremble; all is dark above, and all 
is horror beneath.' 'And pray, what is your 
mode of lifeT 'I sit by myself.' 'In this 
small room, I suppose, and over your fire]' 
'A considerable part of my time.' And what 
time do you go to bed]' 'I cannot retire till 
two or three o'clock in the morning.' 'And 
you lie late, I suppose, in the morning'?' 'Fre- 
quently.' 'And pray what else can you ex- 
pect from this mode of life than a relaxed 
and unstrung system, and, of course, a mind 
enfeebled, anxious, and disordered] I under- 
stand your case; God seems to have qualified 
me to understand it, by special dispensations. 
My natural disposition is gay, volatile, spirited. 
My nature would never sink. But I have 
sometimes felt my spirit absorbed in horrible 
apprehensions, without any assignable natural 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



119 



cause. Perhaps it was necessary I should be 
suffered to feel this, that I might feel for 
others; for certainly no man can have any 
adequate sympathy with others, who has never 
thus suffered himself. I can feel for you, 
therefore, while I tell you that I think the 
affair with you is chiefly physical. I myself 
have brought on the same feelings by the same 
means. I have sat in my study till I have 
persuaded myself that the ceiling was too low 
to suffer me to stand and rise upright, and air 
and exercise alone could remove the impres- 
sion from my mind.' " 

In the last illness of the commentator Scott, 
his mind was observed by his friends to be 
gloomy during the paroxysm of his fever ; nor 
could his comfort be restored by any counsel 
of his pious attendants, until the fever had 
abated. Andrew Fuller also suffered greatly 
on his deathbed, from a similar cause. So 
when Dr. Mad an once attempted to calm the 
mind of Cowper, by quotations from the Scrip- 
tures, it served only to increase his sufferings. 
It was then at the commencement of a slow 



120 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



nervous fever, to which he was liable ; but after 
four months skilful treatment by Dr. Cotton, 
his health was so far improved that the pro- 
mises of the gospel were apprehended without 
hesitation, and whatever his friend Madan had 
said to him long before, revived in all its 
clearness. An aged minister of the gospel 
says, We have known persons who were poor 
in spirit, hungering and thirsting after right- 
eousness, glorying only in the cross of Christ, 
and yet. gloomily concluding that, they have 
no lot nor part in the matter, and that their 
heart is not right with God. And why] The 
reason is to be found in something beyond 
the preacher's province; and till there is a 
change in the animal economy, all the succours 
of religion are in vain. 

In an admirable review of a paper on Moral 
Causes of Disease, by the Secretary .of the 
Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, the au- 
thor reproaches his medical brethren for their 
ignorance or neglect. He chides them for 
the overlooking of psychological causes of dis- 
ease, and of the influence of mental emotions 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



121 



on its development, its progress, and its termi- 
nation. "If a patient dies," he says, "we open 
his body, rummage the viscera, and scrutinize 
most narrowly all the organs and tissues, in 
the hope of discovering lesions of some one 
sort or another. There is not a small mem- 
brane, cavity, nor follicle, which is not care- 
fully examined. One thing only escapes our 
attention, which is this — we are looking at 
merely organic effects, forgetting all the while 
that we must mount higher up, to discover 
their causes. These organic alterations are 
observed, perhaps, in the body of a person who 
has suffered deeply from mental distress and 
anxiety, which have been the energetic cause 
of his decay; but they cannot be studied in 
the laboratory, nor in the amphitheatre." An- 
other profitable use of this subject is, for the 
promotion of 
Charity. 

So far as it is understood and practically 
felt, it will make us pause before we censure 
those of our brethren whose condition rather 
claims our condolence and hearty commisera- 
11 



122 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tion. We think them morose, hypochondriac, 
or misanthropic; assail them with raillery and 
banter, and anon with reproof for feelings of 
sadness, which they can no more resist nor 
control, than they can prevent a flushed cheek 
in fever, or a yellow skin in jaundice. "We 
might as well jeer at Dr. Watts for his pigmy 
size, at Pope for his deformity, or at Milton 
for his blindness. Dr. John Cheyne says, that 
of all the miseries which afflict human life, or 
relate principally to the body in this valley 
of tears, I think "nervous disorders, in their 
extreme and last degree," are the most de- 
plorable, and beyond all comparison the worst. 
And yet there are many in society, even among 
the intelligent, who are accustomed to treat all 
such cases of nervous disorder, as only imagi- 
nary complaints, which are better managed by 
ridicule than by sober counsel, whether medi- 
cal or religious. In order to cure them, they 
think it necessary only to divert the attention 
of the sufferer, and convince him that he will 
be well enough and recover his lost cheerful- 
ness, if he will but cease to brood over his 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



123 



own wretchedness, mix in society, and think 
of other things beside himself. "Many will 
say to such an one, 'Why do you so pore 
over your case, and thus gratify the devil V 
Whereas it is the very nature of the disease 
to cause such fixed musing. You might as 
well say to a man in a fever, 4 "Why are you 
not well] why will you be sick'?' Some, in- 
deed, suppose that the melancholy hug their 
disease and are unwilling to give it up. You 
might as well suppose that a man would be 
pleased with lying on a bed of thorns." The 
reason of their utter, misapprehension of such 
* cases, is their own happy exemption from all 
that sort of morbid wretchedness which they 
treat with so much levity in others, without 
knowing what they do. To persons of this 
description, moreover, all our disquisitions on 
the moral effect of physical causes, are much 
like a treatise in Tamul or Hindostanee : they 
have no just conception of our meaning, nor 
of the utility of what we say. Nor is it 
among the lighter afflictions of the subjects 
of nervous affections, that they receive so little 



124 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

charity or sympathy from others whose gene- 
ral intelligence, and especially religious pre- 
tensions, would warrant them to expect more 
courtesy at least, if not greater tenderness. 
" It is a foolish course which some take with 
their melancholy friends, to answer all their 
complaints and moans with this — that it is 
nothing but . fancy ; nothing but imagination 
and whimsey. It is a real disease, a real 
misery, that they are tormented with; and if 
it be a fancy, yet a diseased fancy is as great 
a disease as any other; it fills them with an- 
guish and tribulation. But this so disordered 
fancy is the consequent of a greater evil, and 
one of the sad effects that are produced by 
that black humour that has vitiated all the 
natural spirits. These afflicted persons can 
never possibly believe that you pity them, or 
that you are heartily concerned for them, if 
you do not credit what they say; and truly it 
often falls out, that because melancholy persons 
do not always look very ill, or have pretty 
good stomachs, and do not at first very much 
decline in their bodies, other persons, that 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 125 

know nothing of the distemper, are apt to 
think that they make themselves worse than 
they are." But if our subject is unintelligible 
to some, it is not so to others; we describe an 
experience with which they are wofully famil- 
iar; and while they are not slow to condemn 
themselves for their fretfulness, irritability of 
temper, and many obliquities of feeling and 
conduct which they so frequently betray, yet 
their faults, however numerous, will be judged 
with least severity by those who best under- 
stand the cause. With nerves so disordered 
and unstrung, there is need of far more vigi- 
lance and prayer, to even appear cheerful and 
amiable, than most good men, without very 
special grace, are able to maintain. " A man 
may be a good performer, but what can he do 
with a disordered instrument'? The occupant 
of a house may have good eyes, but how can 
he see accurately through a soiled window'? 
Let the organ be put in tune, and the glass be 
made clean, before you call in question the 
musical skill of the one, or the eyesight of 
the other." Harsh speeches may fret, perplex, 
11* 



126 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and enrage, but will never do the sufferers 
any good. In his excellent counsels on the 
subject of spiritual depression, Mr. Rogers 
says: — "Some indeed will advise you to chide 
and rebuke them upon all occasions; but I 
dare confidently say, such advisers never felt 
this disease; for if they had, they would know 
that by such a method they do but pour oil 
into the flame, and chafe and exasperate their 
wounds instead of healing them. Mr. Dod, by 
reason of his mild, meek, and merciful spirit, 
was reckoned one of the fittest persons to deal 
with people thus afflicted. Never was any 
minister more tender and compassionate. If 
you would be serviceable to such persons, you 
must not vex them with tart and rigorous dis- 
course. It causes many poor souls to cherish 
and conceal their troubles, to their greater tor- 
ment, because they meet with so very harsh 
entertainment from those to whom they have 
begun to explain their case. Our blessed Lord 
and principal Physician, was meek and lowly, 
and would not break the bruised reed, nor 
quench the smoking flax. And the first visit 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



127 



that the forementioned Mr. Dod made to Mr. 
Peacock in his anguish, was to put him in 
mind of God's kindness. 

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem 

Possis, et magnam morbi deponere partem. — Hor. Epist. 

The power of words and soothing sounds can ease 
The raging pain and lessen the disease. — Francis. 

Another most important use of this subject 
is for 

Reproof and Correction. 

When thoroughly examined and well under- 
stood, it exposes and explodes the popular 
error in relation to those disordered states of 
the mind that are supposed by many to be 
produced by religion. Such events are deplor- 
able whenever they occur, and whatever the 
occasion; but it would certainly be a remark- 
able exception to the general doctrines of phi- 
losophy, as well as of religion, if it could be 
proved that these are the legitimate effect of 
so pure and benignant a cause. "This one 
thing I must testify," Dr. Alexander says, " that 
I never knew the most pungent convictions of 
sin to terminate in insanity; and as to the 



128 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

affections of love to God and the lively hope 
of everlasting life producing insanity, it is too 
absurd for any one to believe it." We readily 
concede that this belongs to a legion of evils, 
intellectual and moral, as well as physical, 
which are the natural product of fanaticism 
and superstition; and this explains the fact, 
that before the revolution so large a propor- 
tion of the insane in France were monks. In- 
deed, it is difficult to account for many of the 
effects of enthusiasm in any other way, than 
by supposing it to be a species of insanity in 
which the aberration relates usually to one 
subject, while in others the judgment is sound. 
And it is perfectly obvious, that the greatly 
multiplied cases of this kind of mental dis- 
order at the present time, in different parts 
of our country, are the offspring of certain 
epidemical delusions by which we have been 
sorely afflicted of late, and which have been 
promoted by nothing so much as by the notice 
of others, and especially their attempts to sup- 
press them by coercion. But we are sustained, 
not by the highest medical authority only, but 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



129 



by a faithful examination of the statistics of 
insanity, when we assert that the hallucina- 
tions of those persons whose mental disorder is 
imputed to religion, "are the result of pre- 
existing disease, and only take their form from 
the accidental habits and feelings of the pa- 
tients." This has been so fully demonstrated, 
that scarcely any modern writer of eminence 
advocates the opposite opinion. From the 
numerous authors whose testimony is easily 
accessible, we will quote a paragraph from two 
or three, who are in the highest repute. 

Dr. George Moore, member of the Royal 
College of Physicians, London, says: "That 
bodily disorder which favours the manifestation 
of the mind in an insane manner, may be 
produced by any of our passions when unre- 
strained by a holy understanding. The best 
blessings may thus be converted into curses; 
the best gifts into the most injurious agents. 
Some say religion is a frequent cause of in- 
sanity. No ; true religion is the spirit of love, 
of power, and of a sound mind; ever active 
in diversified duties and delights; always busy 



130 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



in a becoming manner, and in decent order. 
But the wild notions, unmeaning superstitions, 
spiritual bondage, unrequired and forbidden 
attempts to reconcile the rites and ceremonies 
which wayward men have substituted for the 
liberty of God, begin in disobedience and end 
in darkness. It is strange fire in the censer 
which brings down the naming vengeance, and 
opens a passage to the infinite abyss." 

Of those subjects of what is called religious 
melancholy, or religious madness, who come 
under medical treatment, Dr. Ashbel Green 
says: "It is undeniable that the greater part 
are such as would previously be termed irreli- 
gious persons. Their religious anxiety has 
commenced with their mental aberration, and 
has disappeared on the restoration of health. 
In such cases, though the apprehension of 
Divine anger may not seem unreasonable, it is 
as really an illusion as if the despondency had 
assumed the most alarming type. In fact, 
where religious anxiety or excitement has any 
share in producing mental aberration, this will 
generally put on the form of irreligious pro- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



131 



faneness, or something contradictory of the 
previous healthful state of mind." 

In regard to what are called the moral 
causes of insanity, Dr. Abercrombie says: "I 
suspect there has been a good deal of fallacy, 
arising from considering as a moral cause that 
which was really a part of the disease. This, 
I think, applies in a peculiar manner to the 
important subject of religion, which, by a com- 
mon but very loose method of speaking, is 
often mentioned as a cause of insanity. But 
where there is a constitutional tendency to 
insanity, or to melancholy, one of its leading 
modifications, every subject is distorted to 
which the mind can be directed; and none 
more frequently or more remarkably, than reli- 
gious belief. This, however, is the effect, not 
the cause; and the various forms which it 
assumes may be ascribed to the subject being 
one to which the minds of all men are so 
naturally directed, in one degree or another, 
and of which no man living can divest him- 
self." 

Dr. Burrowes asserts, in his well known 



132 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

work on insanity, "that there is not a tittle 
of evidence to substantiate that Christianity, 
abstractedly, ever made a person insane. Such 
an accusation is only one of the abortions of 
infidelity, or of those who lack knowledge." 

In Dr. Cheyne's interesting work on partial 
derangement of mind in supposed connection 
with religion, he says: "I never saw a case of 
mental derangement, even where it was trace- 
able to a moral cause, in which there was not 
reason to believe that bodily disease could 
have been detected before the earliest aberra- 
tion, had an opportunity of examination been 
offered. Not only does every deranged state 
of ihe intellectual faculties and the natural 
affections depend upon bodily disease, but 
• derangements of the religious and moral senti- 
ments also." 

And, not to multiply authorities, we will add 
no more than a paragraph from Dr. Combe, 
who, in full concurrence with the others, 
maintains that "when fairly examined, the 
danger is seen to arise solely from the abuse of 
religion; and indeed, that the best safeguard 



\ 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 133 

is found in a right understanding of its prin- 
ciples and submission to its precepts. For 
if the best Christian be he who, in meekness, 
humility, and sincerity, places his trust in God, 
and seeks to fulfil all his commandments, then 
he who exhausts his soul in devotion, and at 
the same time finds no leisure or no inclination 
for attending to the common duties of his 
station, and who, so far from arriving at hap- 
piness or peace of mind, becomes every day 
the more estranged from them, and finds him- 
self at last involved in disease and despair, 
cannot be held as a follower of Christ, bat 
must rather be held as the follower of a phan- 
tom assuming the aspect of religion. When 
insanity attacks the latter, it is obviously not 
religion that is the cause; it is only the abuse 
of certain feelings, the regulated activity of 
which is necessary to the right exercise of reli- 
gion; and against such abuse, a sense of true 
religion would have been the most powerful 
protection." 

Dr. James Johnson contends that in every 
case where the mind is said to be diseased, 
12 



134 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

it ought to be considered as only a figure of 
rhetoric; that mind is merely an invisible 
agent, manifesting itself solely through the 
medium of the corporeal organs. When these 
last are deranged, the mental manifestations 
must also be deranged; but the mind itself 
remains unchanged, unassailable, imperishable. 
Even in insanity, it is not the mind which is 
diseased. Some portion of the brain is de- 
ranged, and then the mind can no more mani- 
fest itself sanely, than a musician can bring 
forth harmonious notes from an untuned instru- 
ment. As the mind is not material, neither 
is it liable to disease or death. If we once 
admit that it is subject to the one, we must 
inevitably come to the conclusion that it is 
liable to the other! With the essence or 
nature of mind, we are, and ever shall be igno- 
rant. It is with the corporeal organs, through 
which it reveals its actions, that we have to do. 
If these have come into an abnormal or sickly 
condition, the effect will be often visible in the 
corresponding state of the intellect: and if, 
at such a time, they be specially conversant 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



135 



with the subject of morals and religion, like a 
jaundiced eye, it will impart its morbid hue to 
them both. 

The error of hastily ascribing religious me- 
lancholy to the direct agency or influence of 
religion, is exposed in the account given of a 
patient in the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1842, 
by Dr. Kirkbride, Physician to the institution. 

"A young man of very moderate mental 
capacity, little education, and accustomed to a 
laborious occupation, from too much confine- 
ment at his business finds his health failing, 
and gives up his employment for a few months, 
to recruit. At the end of that time, although 
not well, he is able to return to work, but 
then discovers that the changes in the times 
make it impossible for him to find anything to 
do. His means being exhausted, his body 
weak, without his customary exercise, his mind 
gradually becomes in a morbid state, when 
some excitement from Miller's prophecy occur- 
ring in his neighbourhood, he immediately 
attempts to study the subject, and to ascertain 
its truth from close reading of the Bible — an 



136 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

investigation utterly unsuited for his capacity 
under any circumstances — and the difficulties 
he encounters at the very threshold, lead to 
a violent attack of mania. The disease was 
attributed to 'Miller's prophecy,' or to 'reli- 
gious excitement,' but neither of these causes 
would give a proper idea of the origin of the 
case. Before being excited on that subject, 
the patient's mind was ready to be overturned 
by any abstruse or exciting matter that might 
be presented to it. Without his loss of em- 
ployment this would not have occurred, and 
without the enfeebled health which accom- 
panied it, his attempted investigation might 
have been harmless." 

"Within the sphere of our own pastoral 
labours there have occurred four cases of this 
species of mental disorder, three of which were 
connected with known physical derangement. 
Two were effectually relieved^ after a few 
months, by judicious medical treatment, though 
one of them was so aggravated that the person 
attempted suicide, and on one occasion nearly 
effected it; the third still lingers, the sufferer 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 137 

being a victim of bodily disease. In the fourth 
there was a constitutional wildness on other 
subjects than that of religion; and although 
his temperament was sanguine, his mind habit- 
ually cheerful, and his hope of salvation un- 
commonly firm, yet in a moment of temptation 
he was overcome, and destroyed himself. An- 
other, whom we have known for twenty years, 
and esteemed as a man of more than ordinary 
intellect and piety, has long been subject to 
periods of religious melancholy, when he sus- 
pends his business, loses all interest in society, 
withdraws to his chamber, and remains for 
weeks and months, until the cloud of spiritual 
gloom has passed; he then returns to his secu- 
lar duties and to the church, as if he had 
never been otherwise than cheerful and happy 
in his religion, which is at all times, in sick- 
ness or health, his main topic of conversation. 
No allusion is made to the past, there are no 
inquiries, and he volunteers to give no infor- 
mation; nor have his friends or physicians ever 
been able to explain all the phenomena of this 
case by any of the known doctrines of psycho- 
12* 



138 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

logy, physiology, or religion. That his melan- 
choly is not produced by his religion, would 
appear from the fact, that at all other times 
it is the source of his highest enjoyment. But 
as it regards the cause of these periodical 
changes in his physical condition which occa- 
sion this spiritual occultation, we do not hazard 
a conjecture. 

Not less injurious is the mistake of imputing 
to satanic agency what is dependent on bodily 
disease, as is exhibited in the case of the wife 
of the Rev. John Newton, who was unable to 
leave the house for nearly two years before she 
died, in 1790. In the beginning of October 
she was confined to her bed, and was soon 
after deprived of all locomotive power. In this 
state, distress arose in her mind, which applied 
to the whole system of truth, and she said, 
"If there be a Saviour," "If there be a God;" 
and in this condition continued for a fortnight, 
when there is reason to believe that her doubts 
were removed. Mr. Newton accounted for his 
wife's temporary unbelief, by referring it to 
the influence of Satan. Mrs. Newton's, how- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



139 



ever, was a case of palsy — depending, as was 
supposed, upon a disease of the brain, by 
which her faith, the foundation of her religion, 
was disturbed, while her affections were unin- 
jured. It is well known tjiat Bunyan was 
greviously harassed at times with what he 
believed to be satanic temptations to the worst 
species of evil; and that Luther also supposed 
himself, on one occasion at least, to have been 
assaulted by the devil. But with regard to 
certain phenomena which it is common to 
refer to his influence, such as "unbidden and 
repulsive thoughts and feelings, and false per- 
ceptions, both voices and visions, that they 
may be produced by mere morbid physical 
agency, is unquestionable; because they are 
frequent accompaniments of pure disease, and 
yield, with the disease, to medical treatment. 
Those, therefore, who are called to counsel 
persons thus afflicted, should never lose sight 
of the inquiry, whether such may not be the 
actual origin of what otherwise might be 
treated as temptations of the devil. That 
Satan may have the power of injecting his 



140 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



malicious or blasphemous suggestions imme- 
diately into the mind, we have not intended 
at all to controvert. But we are disposed to 
adopt the principle of Dr. Cheyne, that, 'if 
an appeal to Him who conquered Satan, and 
who will aid all who come to Him in faith, 
fails to relieve those who are thus afflicted, 
they may rest assured, that disease, and not 
the devil, is the enemy with which they have 
to contend,' and they must seek relief accord- 
ingly. 

"And if we are pressed beyond this point 
with the hypothesis, that while disease may be 
the proximate cause of these distressing and 
horrible calamities, yet Satan may be the agent 
who employs this instrumentality to harass the 
Christian, we should be inclined to fall back 
upon the ground thus quaintly maintained by 
Richard Baxter: 'If it were, as some fancy, a 
possession of the devil, it is possible that physic 
might cast him out. For if you cure the 
melancholy, (black bile,) his bed is taken away, 
and the advantage gone by which he worketh; 
cure the choler (bile) and the choleric opera- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 141 

tions of the devil will cease: it is by means 
and humours in us that he worketh.'" 

But this injurious influence on the mind 
has been ascribed, not so much to religion in 
general, as to certain forms or sectarian modes 
in which it has been expounded, and that are 
supposed to be peculiarly adapted to fill the 
soul with gloom and despondency. Hence the 
maxim, so long in vogue among the Romanists, 
"Spiritus Calvinianus, est spiritus melancholi- 
cus," (so nearly English that we need not trans- 
late it.) Even Esquirol more than hints at 
Calvinism as, in some cases, the cause of reli- 
gious melancholy; and it is well known that 
the sentiment wrapped up in this calumnious 
apothegm was a popular solution of the un- 
happy case of Cowper. Thus, a writer in the 
Encyclopedia Britannica at that time, with 
great confidence ascribed his mental malady to 
the theory of justification which he had adopt- 
ed, his natural disposition fitting him to receive 
all the horrors, without the consolations of his 
faith. Macaulay also favours the same opinion, 
by pronouncing the religious teachers of the 



142 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

poet " worthy of incineration." Nor is there 
anything, we are constrained to say, in the 
over cautions, imperfect, and disingenuous, 
however interesting Memoirs by Haley, that 
forbids this inference. And yet, it could not 
but have been known by the author, or rather 
compiler of that work, that the period of his 
life, during which he enjoyed, together with 
the unclouded sunshine of reason, the peace 
and joy of religion, was the interval from 1764 
to 1773, when he believed and openly pro- 
fessed every article of his faith, the effect of 
which was represented as afterward being so 
calamitous. It was then that his character 
was exhibited in all its attractiveness, unveiled 
by any of the mists that had come over it 
before, and which gathered again toward the 
close of his life. He was more cheerful and 
affectionate in his intercourse, partaking with 
lively interest in the common concerns of so- 
ciety, and happy in the enjoyment of his reli- 
gion; and when he became subsequently the 
victim of his afflictive hallucination, he could 
not avoid acknowledging that his gloomy per- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



143 



suasion was at variance with every article of 
his creed, and he was driven to regard himself 
as an inexplicable exception to his own prin- 
ciples. Indeed, his letters of consolation, writ- 
ten to afflicted friends while he seemed to him- 
self in a state of despair, evince that he was 
still a prisoner of hope. Thus to Dr. Bagot, on 
an occasion of fresh and common sorrow, he 
writes in 1793, "Both you and I have this 
comfort, when deprived of those we love at our 
time of life, we have every reason to believe 
that the deprivation cannot be long. Our sun 
is setting, too, and when the hour of rest 
arrives, we shall rejoin your brother, and many 
whom we have loved, our forerunners into a 
better country." We have shown already that 
religious truth of any kind had nothing to do 
as a procuring cause of Cowper's malady. It 
was as clearly a case of hypochondriasis as are 
those instances in which the patient has fan- 
cied himself a tea-pot or a sack of wool; or 
as was that of the baker of Ferrara, mentioned 
by an Italian Count, who thought himself a 
lump of butter, and durst not sit in the sun, 



144 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

nor come near the fire, for fear of being melted, 
and his thinking substance destroyed. 

We maintain then, that this unhappy condi- 
tion, which, without due examination, has been 
imputed to religion, is an effect produced by 
physical causes. That a different opinion 
should have obtained to any extent, is to be 
ascribed to misapprehension, perhaps in part, 
but we doubt not that more frequently it may 
be traced to another source, which is thus 
noticed by Dr. Cheyne. "When a man from 
having been worldly becomes religious, there 
is no one against whom prejudice is stronger. 
No change is less agreeable, not even a change 
from respectability of conduct to the sort of 
profligacy which defies public opinion, than 
that which leads a man, whose previous mo- 
tives were^of a purely secular kind, to make 
the attainment of the kingdom of God his first 
object, by which he necessarily rises in the 
moral scale. That any one formerly on our 
own level should take, or affect to take, higher 
ground, offends our self-love. It is a constant 
rebuke, by reminding us of his superiority of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



145 



principle. Hence, it frequently happens that 
when a man really turns to God, first he is 
represented as a hypocrite, then a fool, and last 
of all, a madman. That his motives and his 
judgment will be arraigned, every neophyte 
may expect, as being matter of uniform expe- 
rience; and that madness is a consequence of 
Divine teaching, is a conclusion which is as old 
as the days of Portius Festus." 

A well-known minister of London, who has 
lately died, was called to visit a woman whose 
mind was disordered, and on remarking that 
it was a case which required the assistance 
of a physician rather than that of a clergy- 
man, her husband replied, "Sir, we sent to 
you because it is a religious case; her mind 
has been injured by constantly reading the 
Bible." " I have known many instances," I 
replied, of persons being brought to their 
senses by reading the Bible; but it is possible 
that too intense an application to that, as well 
as to any other subject, may have disordered 
your wife." " There is every proof of it," said 
he ; and was proceeding to multiply his proofs, 
13 



146 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

till her brother interrupted him by thus ad- 
dressing me: — "Sir, I have no longer patience 
to stand by, and see you imposed on. The 
truth of the matter is this: my brother has 
forsaken his wife, and been long connected 
with an immoral woman. He had the best of 
wives in her, and one who was strongly at- 
tached to him ; but she has seen his heart and 
property given to another, and, in her solitude 
and distress, went to the Bible as the only 
consolation left her. Her health and spirits 
at length sunk under her troubles; and there 
she lies distracted — not from reading her 
Bible — but from the infidelity anct cruelty of 
her husband." The reader need not be told 
that the miscreant made no reply to his bro- 
ther's statement, but immediately left the room 
in the utmost confusion. Another use of this 
subject, and the last which we shall mention, 
is for 

Consolation. 

And for this grateful ministry, its scope is 
as wide as the office is benignant. As may 
be well presumed, this doctrine of physical 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



147 



influences is easily capable of being perverted. 
Some may mistake the buoyancy of animal 
spirits for the influences of the Comforter, and 
others may ascribe the motions of sins which 
are by the law, to the power of bodily disease. 
But it is not intended by this admission of 
the effect of physical causes upon the soul, to 
offer an apology for sin, to furnish a conve- 
nient excuse for indolence, sullenness, a cynical 
temper, or any other culpable dispositions to 
which a man may be constitutionally prone. 
All these may be natural, but very criminal 
nevertheless. The difference is wide between 
a neglect of prayer and watchfulness occasioned 
by great fatigue in the performance of other 
duties, as in the case of the disciples in the 
garden, and an omission caused by giving way 
to an inbred laziness. As a question in morals, 
the point is material whether a man's hasti- 
ness of spirit be a symptom of hepatic disease, 
or the habitual prompting of a depraved and 
neglected heart. We are not accountable to 
God for the difference in our complexion, or in 
the length of our limbs, but he justly makes 



148 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

us responsible for the envy and jealousy and 
malice of our dispositions. Nor is it enough 
to refer such perplexing cases to the tribunal 
of conscience, in view of the well-known influ- 
ence of various moral, as well as physical causes, 
in misguiding its decisions. Not long ago we 
received, in a letter, the account of a young 
man of fervent piety, who was at this time 
preparing for the ministry; but in such a state, 
as to be wholly unable to pursue his studies. 
For several years he has felt himself urged, 
and almost coerced, as he says, to make various 
vows to God, promising to spend so many 
hours a day in devotional exercises, and to 
keep days of fasting and prayer on various 
accounts. These vows have become so bur- 
densome, as to interfere with his duty as well 
as with his peace. He has forgotten some of 
the reasons for these vows, and now he feels 
himself solemnly bound by his vow, but knows 
not what to do to fulfil it; and some of the 
occasions on which days of fasting were vowed 
to be kept, have passed, and his vow not ful- 
filled. He is kept awake a great part of the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



149 



night, and is incapable of study. "I endea- 
voured," my informant says, "to show him 
in what cases vows were not binding, and flat- 
tered myself that I had relieved his mind, but 
in a few days he came back, and I went over 
the whole again; but all to little purpose. 
And by this it may be commonly known, that 
the disease is physical, when the clearest rea- 
soning and admitted conclusions produce no 
effect." 

The same correspondent says, Some time 
since I was consulted respecting the case of a 
young man, who, in obedience to his con- 
science, had vowed that he would never taste 
butter — but as this entered into so many kinds 
of food, he was kept in continual perplexity. 
This, however, seems to have been merely a 
device of Satan. 

Not long ago there was a pious and useful 
pastor in the interior of Pennsylvania, who, 
when pursuing his theological studies, resolved 
or vowed against so many kinds of food, 
because they were gratifying to his palate, that 
13* 



150 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

he actually was suffering for want of nutritive 
food. 

To what extent such religious whims, or 
any morbid exercises of persons in such an 
unhealthy mental condition are culpable, is 
perhaps the most perplexing inquiry which 
this whole subject suggests. That man is 
answerable for his conduct so long as "exag- 
gerated irritability stops short of derangement," 
would seem to be an axiom in morals; and yet 
w T hat shall we understand by derangement'? 
What is that changed condition of the man, or 
how far must it go, in order to release him, for 
the time, from the claims of the moral law'? 
It has been confidently asserted, that the feel- 
ings produced by nervous diseases are not 
strictly moral, nor are we accountable for them, 
except as we are accountable for inducing that 
state of physical organization in which they 
originate. 

And admitting this also to be true, those 
cases will nevertheless continually occur which 
it will occasion no little perplexity to decide. 
Moral qualities, such as pride, envy, jealousy, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



151 



covetousness, &c, we know are hereditary, as 
well as those that are intellectual. "Hence we 
often find," Dr. Rush says, "certain virtues 
and vices as peculiar to families through all 
their degrees of consanguinity and duration, 
as is a peculiarity of voice, complexion, or 
shape." But however this innate or transmit- 
ted tendency to certain kinds of evil may ex- 
cite commiseration, we regard it not so much 
as an apology for having yielded to the incli- 
nation, as a cogent motive for continual vigi- 
lance against it. But notwithstanding the 
difficulties with which the subject is embar- 
rassed, there is, nevertheless, much in this doc- 
trine of physical influences for the comfort of 
those whose wretched experience often makes 
it so desirable. It is a relief to find that they 
were in error concerning the nature of their 
distressing affection; to discover that what was 
supposed to be an infusion of Satan, has been 
caused, perhaps, by a mistake in the quality 
or quantity of their food, or by changes in 
the atmosphere. They see the danger of 
making their feelings the test of their Chris- 



152 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tian character, so long as their health is im- 
paired. Indeed, it is painful to read the 
diaries of many eminent believers, and see 
how they suffered from the imaginary belief 
of the withdrawment of God's favour, mani- 
fested, as they supposed, by the variable state 
of their feelings. Who but the victim himself 
can conceive of the wretchedness of a soul that 
vents its anguish in language such as the fol- 
lowing'? "I taste nothing but gall and worm- 
wood; nothing but misery and vexation. I 
was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder; he 
hath taken me by my neck and shaken me to 
pieces, and set me up for his mark; his archers 
compass me round about; he cleaveth my reins 
asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my 
gall upon the ground. I dare not look up to 
heaven, for there I see how great a God I 
have against me ; I dare not look into his word, 
for there I see all his threats as so many 
barbed arrows to strike me to the heart; I 
dare not look into the grave, because thence 
I am like to have a doleful resurrection. The 
Almighty is my enemy. The prayers of others 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



153 



can do me no good unless I have faith, and I 
find I have none at all, for that would purify 
and cleanse my heart. I do nothing else but 
sin; and God, as he is holy, must set himself 
against me, his enemy." The grand difficulty 
in many of these cases, lies in a deranged con- 
dition of the animal part. 

At the noonday prayer-meeting in Jayne's 
Hall, Philadelphia, in the spring of 1859, 
the following case of spiritual distress was 
submitted by the sufferer, without his name. 
Probably there were not two persons pre- 
sent that conjectured who the petitioner was, 
but there is reason to believe that he was a 
man of a highly cultivated mind, and a dis- 
tinguished minister in one of the most respect- 
able evangelical denominations of our land. 

" An aged minister of the gospel asks the 
prayers of the meeting in behalf of himself. 
Measurably I live without hope. I know not 
that I was ever converted. I walk in dark- 
ness and have no light, but think I am not the 
one who may warrantably trust in the Lord. 
Worldly knowledge, worldly neighbours, many 



154 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

earthly cares and worldly pursuits have turned 
away my heart. A backslider in heart, I cer- 
tainly am. But is this all'! Brethren, pray 
for my conversion. Perhaps this is the very 
thing for which you are to pray. If the very 
purpose for which you were converted be to 
work for the salvation of souls, surely there can 
be no want of sympathy or bond to bind you to 
my case. Apart from this meeting, if two of 
you should agree on earth, touching my case, 
God may answer your prayers of faith and im- 
portunity. Shall I go down to the grave with 
a lie in my right hand? Do not your souls 
know right well the awful condition of a lost 
soul! O bear me up to the throne of grace, 
once and again, nor leave that throne till you 
get the blessing. You shall hear from me as 
to the success of your prayers. If successful, 
how will it fill with thrilling emotions your 
body of praying Christians; how will it wake 
the joy of angels over one more sinner that 
repenteth; how will it greatly add to your en- 
couragement in such work ; how will it invigo- 
rate your strength as praying people; how 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



155 



abundantly useful might I be in teaching trans- 
gressors the ways of the Lord; and how may 
my case, once known, send alarm to some 
ministers of the gospel, and that alarm send 
them to you] 

"Ye men of might in prayer, help. In faith 
ask and ye shall receive. Put your soul in my 
soul's stead, and agonize in prayer for me, that 
I may not, from the heights of religious privi- 
leges and attainments, sink down to everlasting 
woe. That you may be practised to pray suc- 
cessfully for some dear friend at a future day, 
now come boldly to the throne of grace and 
wrestle victoriously in my case. I can only 
add, pray for me, dear brethren, and pray as 
you never prayed before." 

A highly respectable clergyman, still living 
in New England, after having preached with 
much acceptance and success to a congregation 
for twenty years, was called to another field of 
labour; the change proving not so happy in all 
respects as he had anticipated, his health failed, 
and with it his hope. On entering the pulpit 
one Sabbath morning, he sat for a while, then 



156 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

arose, and instead of commencing as usual the 
exercises of the day, he remarked to the people 
that he had been deceived in relation to his 
personal religion, was not worthy of the office 
of a preacher, and could not any longer dis- 
charge it. A physician who was present, called 
on him afterwards, and was enabled to con- 
vince him that the cause of his despondency 
was physical. In the course of two weeks of 
medical treatment it was removed, his Chris- 
tian hope revived, he resumed his labours as a 
preacher, and has continued to perform them 
ever since, with comfort to himself and useful- 
ness to others. 

So far, therefore, as it may be shown to the 
spiritually depressed that their gloominess is 
a symptom of disease, they may be consoled 
by the assurance, that such distress of their 
soul is perfectly consistent with its regenerate 
state and its safety. That the highest medical 
authority teaches, that whenever a change in 
the temper or mind takes place, without a 
plain and manifest moral cause, the condition 
of the liver or digestive organs should be 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



157 



examined; "for there will be found the origin 
of the mischief, three times out of four." 
Let them resort then to such remedies as the 
exigencies of the case demand, and wait for 
relief to be afforded through the proper 
channel. 

The same consideration, moreover, may often 
minister substantial consolation in the case of 
departed friends, whose exercises have appeared 
more or less ambiguous, as flesh and heart 
were failing under the power of disease. 

It is an important observation of Pearson, 
in his life of Mr. Hay, of Leeds, that good 
men may be unreasonably depressed, and bad 
men elevated, under the near prospect of death, 
from the mere operation of natural causes. 
The Saviour's declaration makes it fearfully 
certain that the judgment-day will reveal many 
disappointments of some rejected, who died in 
the confident hope of salvation; of others re- 
ceived, who left this world in darkness and 
despair. How difficult as well as delicate then, 
is the task of those who undertake to compile 
the memoirs of the pious from their diaries, 
14 



158 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

or the records of their secret experience! 
How great their need of judgment, sound dis- 
cretion, and especially of that knowledge of 
mental disorders and morbid influences, which 
many of such writers have evidently lacked ! 
Indeed, we are by no means convinced that 
there is not virtually a breach of trust in 
exposing the records of Christian experience, 
perhaps meant to be secret, to the inspection 
of the public. Such relations, moreover, while 
they have not benefitted the pious, have been 
subjects of merriment to the profane. 

That the deeply interesting biography of 
Payson would have been more valuable by 
some omissions, will hardly be questioned by 
those who regard the portions to which we 
refer, as indicative rather of the state of his 
health than of the*condition of his soul. And 
so of the amiable poet of Olney, who, through 
the whole period of his gloomy aberrations, 
kept a journal of his feelings, which was pub- 
lished after his decease, in spite of the earnest 
expostulations of his more judicious friends 
It was regarded by them as a heartless viola 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



159 



tion of the secrets of the sepulchre, as a throw- 
ing open of the closet of the anatomist to the 
gaze of the vulgar, and a yielding to the pry- 
ings of a . prurient curiosity, under a pretence 
of correcting certain false notions of religion. 

How few of us would be willing to submit 
it to the most discreet friend that might sur- 
vive us, to draw our religious character from 
what we might write from day to day of our 
religious exercises, under a full conviction at 
the time we penned it, of its truth! "We say 
then, in conclusion, that while this doctrine is 
never to be used as an excuse for wilful delin- 
quency in any, it may afford effective consola- 
tion to the afflicted believer when bowed down 
with infirmities of soul which he cannot over- * 
come. If rightly understood it will tend not 
only to minister relief, but will make us more 
watchful against sin in all its forms, and espe- 
cially against that to which we have a consti- 
tutional bias. Are we naturally passionate and 
excitable; are we envious, proud, covetous, or 
jealous, it will cause us to pray and watch 
against these besetting sins with peculiar vigi- 



160 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

lance; while our numerous failures in this and 
every other duty, will make us feel our abso- 
lute dependence on the Spirit, both for grace 
to enjoy our religion, and strength to obey its^ 
precepts. Above all, it will commend to our 
hearts that great Redeemer who hath borne our 
griefs, and carried our sorrows. We shall look 
away from our desperate moral defilement, to 
that blood which cleanseth from all sin; from 
our weakness, to his strength; from our sins, 
to his perfect righteousness. It is but a little 
while, and He that shall come, will come, and will 
not tarry. The day of our emancipation is fast 
approaching, when the earthly house of this 
tabernacle will be exchanged for a building of 
* God, a house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens. The spirit shall no more be im- 
peded by the disorders of the flesh, for this 
vile body shall be fashioned like unto Christ's 
glorious body. 

But as godly Mason says, we are not to 
expect the sunshine of joy all through this 
vale of tears. Comfortable frames and joyful 
feelings, though sweet and delightful, are not 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 161 

always most profitable. Were we ever on the 
mount of joy, we should forget we are strangers 
and pilgrims on earth — be for building taber- 
nacles of rest in a polluted place, and cry out 
with the highly favoured disciples, it is good 
for us to be here. But* they knew not what 
they said. It is the glory of a Christian to 
live by faith on Jesus; to judge of his love by 
the word of truth, more than by sense and 
feeling; — yea, under dejection and disquiet of 
soul, to hope and trust in God; to check and 
rebuke one's self for doubts and diffidence, is 
the real exercise of faith. Thy frames may 
vary with the changes of thy health and of thy 
mortal part, but the foundation of God's love 
standeth sure. Thou mayest meet with many 
things from within and without to cast down 
and disquiet thee; but thou art called to look 
to Jesus, and say, Why art thou cast down, 0 
my soul] and why art thou disquieted within 
me] Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise 
him, who is the health of my countenance, and 
my God! 

14* 



162 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 



CHAPTER III. 

TEMPTATIONS. 

This is the very painting of your fears. — Shakspeare. 

Me oft hath fancy — 
Myself creating what I saw. — Cowper. 

The apostle James reproves those who are too 
ready to connect their enticements to evil with 
supernatural causes; who ascribe to circum- 
stances around them, an influence which pro- 
ceeds from a susceptibility within them. Let 
no man say when he is tempted, I am temped 
of God, for God cannot he tempted of evil, 
neither tempteth he any man. But every man 
is tempted when he is drawn away by his own 
lusts and enticed. The danger of walking 
among sparks belongs only to those who wear 
combustible garments. Nothing is more com- 
mon among the desponding and morbid than a 
proneness to this very mistake. They impute 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 163 

their unhappy experiences to a cause which 
very often is only " the painting of their fears." 
How far the prince of tempters may take occa- 
sion, from their sickly physical state, to lead 
them into errors concerning their spiritual, we 
presume not to say. There is, however, the 
same intervention of second causes in their 
case, as in that which James speaks of. They 
are drawn away by their own bodily affections, 
and enticed into grave mistakes, which cause 
their many doubts and disquiet about their 
spiritual safety. It is a temptation of some, in 
their desponding state, to think that they have 
committed 

The Sin against the Holy Ghost. 

We have known Christians, with eminent 
gifts, and piety which nobody doubted but 
themselves, who have been at times exceed- 
ingly distressed with the apprehension that 
they were guilty of this unpardonable sin. 
The perplexing question concerning its nature, 
than which, Father Austin said, " there was no 
harder in all the Scriptures," is clearly an- 
swered, as they suppose, in their own forlorn 



164 m INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

experience. Among the schoolmen of the mid- 
dle ages there were no less than six different 
opinions about this fearful sin, all of which, in 
later times, have been rejected as erroneous. 
In addition to these, twenty-six have been 
expressed- by others, or thirty-two in all. Cal- 
vin denned it a malicious resistance to Divine 
truth, only for the sake of resistance. In 
this view Arminius concurred with Calvin, 
although opposed to him in so many others 
of more importance. Since the Reformation, a 
more common opinion has been, that it was 
the sin of the Jews when they ascribed the 
miracles of Christ to the agency of Satan. 
Dr. Chalmers and others, think it to be, not 
so much any one sin against the Holy Ghost, 
as a prolonged sinning — a resisting and griev- 
ing the heavenly Comforter until he ceases to 
strive, and withdraws; when the forsaken heart 
is left like a field on which the clouds shed no 
more rain. The good seed of the word will 
not take root and bring forth fruit in the 
former case, any more than bare grain, wheat, 
or some other, will germinate, so long as the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. - 165 

earth is powder and dust in the absence of 
proper moisture. Conviction of sin, regenera- 
tion, sanctification, are no longer possible, be- 
cause the dishonoured Spirit, so often repelled, 
has let these impenitent persons alone. Sin- 
ning now has becoxne unpardonable, as it can 
no longer be repented of, and not because it 
is, in its own nature, worse than it was before 
the Spirit's final exit. It does not come within 
the scope of the present volume to write a 
treatise on this grave subject; but it is intro- 
duced to the reader's notice only so far as to 
exhibit the moral effect of a physical cause. 
The gloomy prognosis in cases like these, is a 
token, not as the sufferers suppose, that they 
are unconverted, but that they are unwell. 
Mr. Kemper says, that in ninety-nine instances 
out of a hundred, it is a symptom of bodily 
disease, "of which state Satan takes advantage 
to annoy and distress them. This appears," 
he adds, "for two reasons — first, that so many 
recover, become comfortable, and cease to 
charge themselves with the commission of that 
most frightful of all sins: the second is, that 



166 * INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

others know their characters to be better than 
they say they are, and from the unreasonable 
charges which they bring against themselves, 
which others, in their sober senses, can see 
were impossible." We once knew a young 
man who had lived twelve years under the 
impression that he had survived his day of 
grace. He supposed that he could refer to 
the very day, and mention the act, by which 
he caused the Holy Spirit to withdraw, and 
leave him in a condition of hopeless obduracy. 
In all this time he had shown a becoming 
respect to the preaching of the gospel, but 
without any benefit of which he was conscious, 
or that was visible to others. No one sus- 
pected what was the state of his mind — not 
his pastor, nor most intimate friends; for in 
all his conversation he had carefully concealed 
it from both. But the Spirit that he had 
exiled for ever, as he imagined, was striving 
with him still, and at length constrained him 
to reveal this oppressive secret to his pastor. 
He was then told that the very distress of 
mind which had caused him to seek that inter- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



167 



view, was at once the token and effect of the 
Holy Spirit's presence. The remark was sup- 
ported by citations from the Scriptures, and 
followed by prayer. His mind was at once 
relieved, when his joy was now great in pro- 
portion to his former deep and long-continued 
sorrow. Dr. Bidgley says, that "such as are 
guilty of this sin have no conviction in their 
conscience of any crime committed herein; but 
stop their ears against all reproof, and often 
set themselves, with the greatest hatred and 
malice, against those who, with faithfulness, 
admonish them to the contrary. That they go 
out of the way of God's ordinances, and wil- 
lingly exclude themselves from the means of 
grace, which they treat with the utmost con- 
tempt, and use all means in their power that 
others may be deprived of them." A conscious- 
ness of sin then, according to Dr. Ridgley, 
a solicitude and sorrow produced by a person's 
fears of having sinned beyond pardon, are evi- 
dence that his case was not so desperate as he 
supposes. His u pain to find he cannot feel" 



168 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

is a symptom of vitality. It proves that he 
has not passed into the callous state of those 
whom the apostle Paul describes as past feel- 
ing. Some time before the Rev. Daniel Baker 
made a profession of religion, he was in great 
spiritual darkness, and on the borders of des- 
pair, from the fear that he had sinned away 
his day of grace. "The unpardonable sin! — 
the unpardonable sin ! — I was very much afraid 
that I had committed it; but one day, reading 
a book called 'Russel's Seven Sermons,' I met 
with a sentence in the last sermon which gave 
me great comfort. It was to this effect — that 
if a man has any serious concern about the 
salvation of his soul, and has a tender thought 
in relation to his Redeemer, that was proof 
positive that he had not committed the unpar- 
donable sin. Immediately my burden was 
gone; every cloud was scattered, and my feel- 
ings beoame most delightful. It was like the 
beauty of spring after a long and dreary win- 
ter. I had new views of my Saviour; felt that 
I could rest upon him; and was enabled to 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



169 



rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" 
Another common temptation is to the 

Adoption of a false standard of duty, 
or of ambiguous evidences of a regenerate 

STATE. 

Like the Jews who could not discern the 
signs of the times which were so visible in 
the moral firmament, and so intelligible to 
many, they asked for others that the Saviour 
would not give, and which they had no 
Divine warrant to expect. Thus, how many 
have lost their spiritual peace by the sudden 
occurrence of an "alarming passage of Scrip- 
ture," as* if it were a supernatural warning. 
They forget that a bad spirit can suggest a 
text as well as the Good, and that its mean- 
ing is liable to be perverted in order that 
it may suit the morbid state of their mind 
when it is presented, just as water takes the 
colour of the soil over which it runs. It is 
mentioned in the life of Mr. Lackington, the 
celebrated bookseller, that when quite a youth, 
he was at one time locked up to prevent his 
attending a Methodist meeting in Taunton. 
15 



170 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Under a strong mental impression that he 
ought to go, he opened his Bible for direction, 
when his eye caught the passage: He shall 
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in 
their hand they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash 
thy foot against a stone. This, Mr. Lacking- 
ton says, "was quite enough for me; so, with- 
out a moment's hesitation, I ran up two pair 
of stairs to my own room, and out of the 
window I leaped, to the great terror of my 
poor mistress, who had charge of me." He was, 
of course, severely bruised, and was confined 
to his bed fourteen days. Doubtless young 
Lackington was sincere, and was not aware 
of his adopting the very sense of the passage 
imposed on it by Satan, and which, in his 
excited state, he was so predisposed to receive. 
The great moral lesson which this experience 
taught him, was never forgotten. Nor was it 
bought dearly, even at the expense of so much 
bodily peril. It is a striking exemplification 
of the folly of all who are, like him, enticed 
to bite the Tempter's hook when baited by a 
text of the Bible. Persons sometimes think 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



171 



themselves to be following a light from heaven, 
when they are led by a vain imagination and 
a deceiving heart. Others, again, trust to the 
evidence of "dreams," and are at one time 
alarmed, and at another comforted, by thoughts 
from the visions of the night , which they seem 
to believe are prompted by the same Spirit 
that addressed Eliphaz the Temanite: as if 
physiology had not made it too clear to be 
any longer doubted, that the character of our 
dreams depends very much upon our physical 
condition as affected by the amount or quality 
of our food last taken, and the state of our 
stomach. One man retiring to bed after a 
light meal, will dream of Paradise; while the 
digestive organs of another, gorged and op- 
pressed by the excesses of the evening, will 
make him dream of perdition. Baron Trenck 
relates, that being almost dead with hunger 
when confined in his dungeon, his dreams 
every night presented to him the well filled 
and luxurious tables of Berlin, from which, as 
they were spread before him, he imagined he 
was about to relieve his hunger. Not a small 



172 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

proportion of our dreams at night are the pro- 
longed waking thoughts of the day, and come, 
according to Solomon, through the multitude of 
« business. Condorcet told some one, that while 
he was engaged in abstruse and profound cal- 
culations, he was frequently obliged to leave 
them in an unfinished state, in order to retire 
to rest; and that the remaining steps, and the 
conclusion of his calculation, had more than 
once presented themselves in his dreams. Mr. 
Coleridge, after reading an account of the Khan 
Kubla, fell into a sleep, and in that situation 
composed an entire poem of not less than two 
hundred lines, some of which he afterwards 
committed to writing. President Edwards so 
fully believed that our dreams are generally 
fashioned from the materials of the thoughts 
and feelings that we have, while awake, that he 
used to take particular notice of his dreams, in 
order to ascertain from them what his predomi- 
nant inclinations were. Such being the con- 
nection between the operations of our mind in 
sleep and our sensations and conceptions when 
awake, we see the error of those who are so 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



173 



ready to ascribe their dreams to a supernatural 
influence, and receive them as revealing the 
will of God. 

We once knew a lady, in advanced age, that 
gave little evidence of piety, who had cherished 
for many years an unwavering assurance of her 
salvation, which was based upon nothing but a 
dream. That God no longer informs men of 
his mind through supernatural dreams, as he 
did in patriarchal times, we do not assert. We 
presume to fix no limit to this method of Divine 
communication — to say when it ceased ; or that 
old men do not dream dreams, and young men 
see visions still. The apparent connection that 
is sometimes seen between men's dreams and 
the subsequent events which they seem to fore- 
see and predict, is too striking and exact to be 
accidental or fortuitous, or to be explained "on 
simple and natural principles." A dream of 
this sort is mentioned in the memoir of a dis- 
tinguished clergyman of England, to whom 
the facts were well known. A young lady, 
whose mind had become awakened to consider 
the subject of religion with special interest, 
15* 



174 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

dreamed of being in a place of worship, where 
she heard a sermon, but when she awoke, could 
remember nothing but the personal appearance 
of the preacher, and his text. The impression 
on her mind, however, was very deep, and she 
resolved on the next Lord's-day morning to 
"find the place that she dreamed of, if she 
should go from one end of London to the 
other." About one o'clock she found herself 
in the heart of the city, where she dined, and 
afterwards set out again in search of this place 
of worship. About half-after two o'clock she 
saw a great number of people going down the 
Old Jewry, and determining to see where they 
went, she was led by them to the meeting- 
house of the Rev. Mr. Shower. She had no 
sooner entered the door, than, turning to a 
companion, she said, with some surprise, "This 
is the very place I saw in my dream." It 
was not long before Mr. Shower entered the 
pulpit, when, with greater surprise, she ob- 
served, "This is the very man I saw in my 
dream; and if every part of it holds true, he 
will take for his text the 7th verse of the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



175 



116th Psalm: Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul, 
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. 
When he arose to pray, every petition ex- 
pressed the desire of her heart. Then followed 
the sermon, which, to her joyous amazement, 
was on the very passage which had been im- 
pressed on her mind in the dream. The result 
was her saving conversion, and her finding 
that rest for her soul which she had so long 
sought elsewhere in vain. Not less remark- 
able was the case mentioned by Dr. Aber- 
crombie, of a most respectable clergyman in a 
country parish of Scotland, who made a collec- 
tion in his church for an object of public 
benevolence, in which he felt deeply interested. 
The amount of the collection, which was re- 
ceived in ladles carried through the church, fell 
greatly short of his expectation; and during 
the evening of the day he frequently alluded to 
the fact with expressions of much disappoint- 
ment. In the following night he dreamed that 
three one-pound notes had been left in one of 
the ladles, having been so compressed that they 
had stuck in the corner when the ladle was 



176 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

emptied. He was so impressed with the vision, 
that at an early hour in the morning he went 
to the church, found the ladle that he had seen 
in his dream, and drew from one of the corners 
of it the three one-pound notes. The same 
writer gives an account of another clergyman, 
who had gone to Edinburgh from a short dis- 
tance in the country, and was sleeping at an 
inn, when he dreamed of seeing a fire, and one 
of his children in the midst of it. He awoke 
with the impression, and instantly left town on 
his return home. When he arrived within 
sight of his house he found it on fire, and got 
there in time to assist in saving one of his 
children, who, in the alarm and confusion, had 
been left in a state of danger. The authority 
on which we have the story, forbids us to doubt 
its authenticity. But while there is now and 
then a case like these, which no philosophy 
of the mental powers can fully explain, yet the 
wild, grotesque, incoherent, and non-natural 
character of most, prove them 

To be the children of an idle brain, 
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



177 



As the bard of Avon expounds the theory, 
under the whimsical fiction of Queen Mab 
sallying forth by night in her hazel-nut chariot, 
on her dream-inspiring missions — 

When in this state, she gallops night by night 
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love ; 
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight: 
O'er lawyers' fingers, "who straight dream on fees; 
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream : 
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, 
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit ; 
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, 
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, 
Then dreams he of another benefice: 
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, 
And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats, 
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon 
Drums in his ear ; at which he starts, and wakes ; 
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, 
And sleeps again. 

Many Christians, of a nervous temperament, 
are tempted to make too much of 
Religious frames. 

They will imagine themselves, perhaps, to 
be in a state of favour with God, or to be 
unreconciled, according to their present im- 



178 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

pression or mental enjoyment. Mr. Brownlow 
North, in one of his public addresses in Ire- 
land, mentioned the case of a female in Bel- 
fast, who said that she knew that Christ had 
pardoned her sins, because she was so happy; 
but if her feeling of happiness were taken 
away, she would not think her sins to have 
been forgiven. "Many imagine, unless they 
are at all times in a glow of fervour, an 
ecstatic frame of feeling, all must be wrong 
with them. But there is nothing more dan- 
gerous or deceptive than a life of mere feeling; 
and its most dangerous phase is a life of reli- 
gious emotional excitement. It is in the last 
degree erroneous to consider all this glowing 
ecstacy of frame a necessary condition of 
healthful spiritual life. You will not be asked, 
in the last great day, whether you had great 
enjoyment, or much enlargement of soul here. 
Speak to that vast multitude which no man 
can number, now around the throne. Ask 
them whether they came through much con- 
solation and joy in the Lord. No! through 
much tribulation. Ask them whether they 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



179 



were saved by their warmth of love to their 
Saviour. No! but they had washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." Many persons derive their faith 
from their feelings, whereas they ought to do 
the exact reverse, and let their feelings flow 
from their faith. 

The power of temptation, in the form we 
now speak of, was exemplified, to a remark- 
able extent, in the case of Mrs. Hawkes, that 
devoted friend of Mr. Cecil, of London, and 
an honoured servant of Christ. Her copious 
diary is full of meditations which exhibit her 
spiritual vacillancy, and show that this was 
her infirmity. Thus, after one of her transi- 
tions from spiritual gloom to light and hope, 
she exclaims: "How variable are our frames 
and feelings! How like the shining and the 
shadow passing over the green plain! But, 
blessed be God, our salvation consisteth not in 
frames and feelings, but in being engrafted on 
the living Vine, and abiding in Christ; con- 
sisteth not even in our sensible hold on him, 
but in our simple belief of his gracious decla- 



180 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ration that he will never leave, nor forsake, 
nor suffer us to be plucked out of his hand." 
In reference to such cases as hers, Mr. New- 
ton remarks, "that a humble, dependent frame 
of spirit, perseverance in the appointed means, 
care to avoid all occasions of sin, a sincere 
endeavour to glorify God, an eye to Jesus 
Christ as our all in all, are sure indications 
that the soul 'is thriving,' whether sensible 
consolation abound or not. Neither high nor 
low frames will do for a standard of faith; self 
may be strong in both." Persons who are 
conscious of such spiritual oscillations should 
learn to discriminate between their emotions or 
frames and their habitual principles of action. 
The former may be likened to the little eddies 
near the margin of a river, which, at different 
times, flow towards all points of the compass. 
The latter are the current, constantly tending 
the same way, and which makes it evident in 
what direction the great volume of water is 
running. In one of his affectionate letters to 
Mrs. Hawkes, that relates to the religious 
depression which she often suffered, Mr. Cecil 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



181 



compares an afflicted believer to "a man that 
has an orchard laden with fruit, who, because the 
wind has blown off the leaves, sits down and 
weeps. If one asks, 6 What do you weep for V 
'Why, my apple-leaves are gone!' 'But, have 
you not your apples leftT 'Yes.' 'Very well, 
then, do not grieve for a few leaves, which 
could only hinder the ripening of your fruit.' 
Pardon and promises, that cannot fail, lie at 
the root of your profession, my dear daughter; 
and fruits of faith, hope, and love, that no one 
can question, have long covered your branches. 
The east wind sometimes carries off a few 
leaves, though the rough wind is stayed. And 
what if every leaf were gone 7 ? What if not a 
single earthly comfort were left] Christ has 
prayed and promised that your fruit shall 
remain; and it shall be my joy to behold it in 
all eternity." 

Nobody that knew the late Mr. Simeon, of 
Cambridge, England, ever doubted his piety; 
and yet he was, in a remarkable degree, subject 
to the tossings to and fro of opposite religious 
frames. A friend, on one occasion calling upon 
16 



182 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

him, found him so absorbed in the contempla- 
tion of the Son of God, and so overpowered 
with a display of mercy to his soul, that he was 
incapable of uttering a single word. At length, 
after an interval, he was able to ejaculate, 
"Glory! glory! glory!" A very short time 
afterward, a desponding minister applied to 
him for spiritual counsel, when he found Mr. 
Simeon "in tenfold more misery than himself, 
and could only cry out, 'My leanness! my 
leanness !' " 

Not less injurious to the spiritual progress 
of others, is a 

Habit of mental introspection. 

We mean not the salutary practice of self- 
examination, which is commended alike by 
apostolic injunction and Christian experience; 
but we speak of a continued peering inward on 
their thoughts, emotions, affections, convictions 
of sin, and various exercises of mind, instead of 
looking away from them all to Christ. It is 
the natural proneness of a doubting and fearful 
mind, which it is often hard to resist. But, 
like Mary's visit to the sepulchre after the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



183 



resurrection, it is a seeking of the living among 
the dead. Some persons, in their desponding 
moods, "think only of themselves and their 
sins. Nothing can magnify equal to melan- 
choly; and nothing is so monotonous. A 
melancholy man, left to himself and the sway 
of his melancholy, will not have a new idea 
once a month. His thoughts will move round 
and round in the same dark circle. This will 
do him no good; he ought to get out of it. 
Depression never benefits body or soul. We 
are saved ~by hope" But next in danger to this 
mistake of looking to themselves for help and 
light, is their "making a test of the experience 
of others for the trial of our own." In a letter 
to Mr. Anderson, Dr. Chalmers speaks of the 
besetting anxiety that attends such a practice, 
concerning which he makes the following excel- 
lent suggestions, as the promptings of his own 
observation and consciousness: "When you 
read books upon the subject of conversion, you 
see a certain process assigned, and in such a 
confident and authoritative way too, that you 
are apt to conceive that this is the very process, 



184 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and that there can be no other. I compare it 
with my own history, and my own resolutions, 
and I am apt to be alarmed at the want of cor- 
respondence in a good many particulars. Scott's 
'Force of Truth' is an example; Doddridge's 
'Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul' 
another; and last, though not least, the 'Pil- 
grim's Progress.' I pronounce them all to be 
excellent, and that there are many exemplifica- 
tions such as they describe. But the process 
is not authoritative, nor is it universal. The 
Spirit taketh its own way with each individual, 
and you know it only by its fruits. I cannot 
say of myself, that I ever felt a state of mind 
corresponding to John Bunyan's Slough of 
Despond. Indeed, I blame myself most sin- 
cerely, that I cannot excite in my heart a high 
enough conception of sin in all its malignity. 
I hope I have the conviction, but I cannot com- 
mand the degree of emotion that I should like ; 
and in the hardness of a heart, not so tenderly 
alive, as it ought to be, to the authority of my 
Lawgiver, and the enormity of trampling upon 
him, I feel how far, and very far, I am at this 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



185 



moment from the measure of the stature of the 
perfect man in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, 
what am I to infer from this? — that I have not 
yet surmounted the impassable barrier which 
stands between me and the gate of life'? So 
one would suppose from John Bunyan, and so 
I would suppose myself, were it not for the 
kind assurance of my Saviour, whose every 
testimony is truth, and every tone is tender- 
ness: He that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live. This is my firm hold, 
and I will not let it go. I sicken at all my 
own imperfect preparations. I take one deci- 
sive and immediate step, and resign my all to 
the sufficiency of my Saviour." Many Chris- 
tians, of unequal experience, are wont to 

Make an idol of Comfort. 

This temptation is akin to that already men- 
tioned, which rests the believer's hope on the 
unstable basis of frames. But it implies an 
erroneous view of the Scriptures, and a mis- 
take of the only source from which solid and 
enduring comfort can ever emanate. In his 
life, written by Clarke, Dr. Harris is quoted 
16* 



186 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

as exposing, with much discrimination, this 
among other mistakes of disturbed minds that 
are seeking relief. "What an idol," he says, 
"do some make of comfort, as if it were their 
Christ'?" It absorbs their thoughts, and they 
seem to care for nothing but this. And when 
their comfort comes they are apt to lose it — 
some by nourishing too great scrupulosity, and 
others by contracting carelessness and hardness 
of heart. But if we miss or lose our comforts 
for other causes than our own remarkable de- 
fault and disobedience, we must acquiesce in 
the pleasure of God until the blessed day dawns. 
But why look so intently after this, when, if 
we study and understand the covenant of grace, 
and are but sincere, it will give us quietness 
under our manifold infirmities and trials, even 
though comforts flow not in upon us? But 
another error of these seekers after comfort, 
is to mistake its abatement for an absolute 
removal. In some cases, perhaps, their fears 
may be just; and yet many are ready to mis- 
trust the least declension ot it for its loss. 
They ought to understand that comfort long 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



187 



enjoyed does not make the impression it did 
at first — especially if they came out of great 
darkness; for then it is like standing in the 
open sun, after having just come out of a dun- 
geon. The change, at first, is very impressive; 
but after a long and habitual sunshine, though 
the heat and benign influences are just the 
same, yet use and time abate gradually the 
transports of the sensation." Hence the peace 
of such believers, unlike the steady flow of a 
river, is as unstable as the waters of the 
always changing ocean. Many excellent Chris- 
tians, in reading the teachings of Christ, ap- 
pear to make the same mistake as did the 
sons of Zebedee; they are looking for their 
crown without the antecedent cross — for the 
victory of faith, without the good fight through 
which Paul gained it, and everybody else, who 
has gained it at all. In their desire to be 
filled with comfort, which is one of the fruits of 
sanctification, they lose sight of the process of 
trial by which God is pleased, in most cases, 
to carry on and mature this work of the Spirit. 
Such mistaken disciples expect to enjoy, in 



188 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the present life, Mason says, that unmingled 
happiness which God has promised only for 
the future. 'O, give me comforts, or I die!' 
saith the soul of such an one; for surely, 
were I a child of God, I should not be thus 
tried, afflicted, and distressed.' 'Nay,' saith 
the Saviour, 'ye know not what ye ask. Dost 
thou forget the exhortation which speaketh unto 
you as unto children, despise not thou the chas- 
tening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art re- 
buked of him. Did I bid thee believe on me \ 
Believe also my words; through much tribula- 
tion thou must enter my kingdom.' We often 
pray, like Peter, to be excused being washed 
by our Lord; but we consider neither his love 
nor our own advantage. If I wash thee not, 
thou hast no part with me. If ye be without 
chastisement, then are ye not sons. I will purge 
away thy dross and thy tin, and purify thee in 
the furnace. Then shall thy graces shine 
brighter, thy faith grow stronger, thy love 
burn more fervent, and thy obedience be more 
cheerful. O happy to live, not so much on 
comforts, as on the God of all comforts." But 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



189 



the worst of all forms of temptation, is when 
it tends to 
Despair. 

The unhappy condition of which we have 
treated, assumes many phases, and is modified 
by circumstances almost numberless. In all 
cases it is attended with mental suffering more 
or less aggravated; but the malady sometimes 
reaches its dreadful climax in a state of des- 
pair. In most instances of this kind, the 
symptoms of bodily disease are so apparent, 
that all religious counsels may be deferred as 
superfluous, until the physical state has been 
changed by proper medical treatment. Some- 
times, however, when there are no perceptible 
indications of impaired health, the mind sinks 
into a state of hopelessness, which is promoted 
and nurtured by perverted views of truth, or 
a misapplication of its meaning. They are 
afraid to pray, perhaps, because the sacrifice of 
the wicked is abomination; or at some former 
time they may have eaten and drunk damnation 
to themselves by partaking unworthily at the 
Lord's table. Not long ago a pastor told me 



190 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of an interesting female member of his church, 
who had been despairing of her salvation many 
years, because of her having been guilty, as 
she supposed, of this presumptuous act. Very 
often, in this sickly state, the mind is tempted 
to ponder the Divine decrees, or the mystery 
of election, or try to reconcile the Divine 
purposes and foreknowledge with human free 
agency. It endeavours to "pry between the 
folded leaves" of the book of life, which is for- 
bidden even to Gabriel; to comprehend that 
which is incomprehensible, and to know that 
which passeth knowledge. The forlornness and 
desperation that such diseased musings lead to, 
are indescribable. But cases of this kind so 
closely resemble those in which the mind is 
brooding over an imagined sin against the 
Holy Ghost, that the counsels addressed to the 
former are not less adapted to instruct the 
latter. Persons under the power of temptation 
in this form, not only neglect the means of 
grace, but, by a constant rumination on their 
wretchedness, only make it the more difficult 
to dislodge the delusion, and minister effectual 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



191 



relief. But "despair never made a human 
being better; it has made many a devil worse." 
Mr. Spencer says, that at one time there was 
in his congregation a woman about forty years 
of age, who was a wonder to me. She was 
one of the most intelligent and well educated 
of the people; she had been brought up from 
her childhood in the family of a clergyman, as 
his daughter; was very attentive to the obser- 
vance of the Sabbath; and was never absent 
from her seat in the church. As the mother 
of a family she had few equals. Everybody 
respected her. But she was not a member of 
the church; and whenever I had endeavoured 
to call attention to the subject, she was so 
reserved, that I could not even conjecture what 
was her particular state 6f mind. I was told 
that she never spoke to any one in respect to 
her religious feelings. One day I called upon 
her, and frankly told her my embarrassment 
about her. I mentioned her uniform taci- 
turnity; my motive in aiming to overcome it; 
my supposition that some error kept her from 
religion, and my inability to conjecture what 



192 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

it was. I said to her that I had not a doubt 
there was something locked up in her own 
mind which she never whispered to me. She 
seemed very much surprised at this declaration, 
and I instantly asked her if it was not so? 
With some reluctance she confessed it was. 
And then, after no little urgency, she said she 
would tell me the whole — not on her own ac- 
count — but that her case might not discourage 
me from aiming to lead others to Christ. She 
then said that her day of grace was past; that 
she had had every possible opportunity for sal- 
vation; that every possible motive had been a 
thousand times presented to her; that she had 
been the subject of deep convictions and 
anxiety often; she had lived through three 
remarkable revivals of religion, in which many 
of her companions had been led to Christ; and 
that she had again and again attempted to 
work out her salvation, but all in vain. "I 
know my day is gone," she said, "and I am 
given over." She spoke this in a decided 
manner, solemnly and coldly, unmoved as a 
rock. As I was silently thinking for a mo- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 193 

ment how I could best remove her error, she 
went on to say that she had never before now 
mentioned this ; that she fully believed in the 
reality of experimental religion, and assented 
to everything she had ever heard me preach, 
except when once or twice I had spoken of 
religious despair. But inasmuch as her day of 
grace was past, she did not wish to have her 
mind troubled on the subject of religion at all, 
and asked me to say nothing more about it. 
I inquired how long she had been in this state 
of mind] She told me she had known for 
eighteen years that there was no salvation for 
her. I inquired if she ever prayed] She said 
she had not prayed for eighteen years. I asked 
if she did not feel unhappy to be in such a 
state] She said she seldom thought of it, as 
it would do no good; and she never intended 
to think of it again. I called to see her time 
after time, about once a week for six weeks; 
examined all her reasons for thinking that her 
day of grace had gone by, except one, and 
convinced her that they were false. Evidently 
17 



194 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

she had become intellectually interested; there 
was but one point left. She had never, at any 
preceding interview, expressed a .wish to see 
me, or asked me to call again. I now called 
her attention summarily to the ground we had 
gone over, and how she had found all her 
refuges of lies swept away, save one, as she 
herself had acknowledged; and if that were 
gone, she would think her salvation possible. I 
then asked her if she wished to see me again'? 
She replied that her opinion was unchanged, 
but that she would like to hear what I had to 
say about the remaining point, which, as she 
truly said, I had avoided so often. I called the 
next day, and took up the one point left — this 
last item, which doomed her to despair. As I 
examined it, reasoning with her, and asking if 
she thought me right, from step to step, as I 
went on, the intensity of her thoughts became 
painful to me. She gazed upon me with unut- 
terable astonishment. Her former cold and 
stone-like appearance was gone; her bosom 
heaved with emotion; and her whole frame 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



195 



seemed agitated with a new kind of life. To 
see the dreadful fixedness of despair melting 
away from her countenance, and the dawnings 
of inceptive hope taking its place, was a new 
and strange thing to me. It looked like put- 
ting life into a corpse. As my explanation and 
argument drew towards the close, she turned 
pale as death. She almost ceased to breathe; 
and when I had finished, and in answer to my 
question, she confessed that she had no reason 
to believe that her day of grace was past, and 
instantly she looked as if she had waked up in 
a new world. The tears gushed from her eyes 
in a torrent; she clasped her hands, sprung 
from her seat, and walked back and forth 
across the room, exclaiming, "I can be saved! — 
I can be saved! — I can be saved!" She was so 
entirely overcome that I thought she would 
faint, or perhaps her reason give way. I was 
afraid to leave her, and remained, saying no- 
thing, till she became more composed, when, 
with a silent bow, I withdrew. The next 
Sabbath morning she was at the meeting for 



196 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

inquirers, and appeared like other awakened 
sinners, with nothing remarkable about her, 
except her manifest determination to seek the 
Lord with all her heart. In about three weeks 
she became one of the happiest creatures in 
hope, I ever saw. She afterwards united with 
the church, and yet lives a happy and decided 
believer. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



197 



CHAPTER IV. 

COUNSELS. 

'Tis hard, in such a strife of rules, to choose 
The best. 

Armstrong. 

Haying examined the nature of physical causes, 
their influence upon religious experience, and 
the uses of knowledge, we come now to the 
most important department of our subject, viz. 

The counsels which such cases of suffer- 
ing REQUIRE. 

And here we should repeat the remark, 
that as we are not writing for medical men, 
neither do we affect the medical knowledge 
which is required to do it justice in all its 
bearings. The most which has been proposed 
and attempted, is to offer the results of some 
experience and observation in prosecuting the 
ministry, rather than the fruits of scientific 
research. Without much of the latter, it has 
appeared to the writer, that there is ample 
17* 



198 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

scope for some profitable suggestions, by which 
the unhappy condition of many may be reached 
and relieved. 

The more conversant we become with the 
varied cases of spiritual disquietude, occurrent 
in our churches, the more occasion we see for 
all the aid which may be furnished by the 
counsels and experience of others. That this 
should have been made no more frequently the 
subject of discussion by the pen or the pulpit, 
is to be ascribed, not to its intrinsic barren- 
ness, nor its want of importance, as is evident 
from the prominency given it in the older 
English writers, but the demand for treatises 
on subjects like that of our present discussion 
is small, and for the most part restricted to 
those whose cases are portrayed, and very often 
to a smaller number even than they. Some- 
times there is such an utter prostration of all 
energy, intellectual and moral, in the afflicted 
themselves, that it is extremely difficult to 
arrest their attention even by instructions, 
which, if heeded, would relieve their spirits, 
and restore them to cheerfulness. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



199 



" In perusing trie memoirs of those who have 
devoted themselves to God," Dr. Cheyne says, 
"nothing has appeared to us more remarkable 
than their ignorance of, or inattention to, many 
of those things which affect their spiritual 
enjoyment; and especially that physical causes 
should be so continually overlooked by those 
who must be fully aware of the influence which 
the body exercises over the mind, and the mind 
over the body, in all men, but particularly in 
Christians." They are habitually desponding 
and unhappy; not appearing to know how 
much the pleasurable emotions of the soul are 
dependent on the state of the health. 

Non est vivere, sed valere, vita. 
Existence is not life, but to be well. 

To those, then, who are perplexed about 
their spiritual state, and are often fearful and 
sad, we would say, 

Endeavour, so far as possible, to ascer- 
tain THE TRUE CAUSE OF YOUR DOUBTS AND 
SPIRITUAL TROUBLES. 

This is Baxter's prescription. "If you 
should mistake in the cause," he says, "it 



200 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

would much frustrate the most excellent means 
for cure. The very same doubts and com- 
plaints may come from several causes in several 
persons, and therefore admit not of the same 
way of cure. Sometimes the cause begins in 
the body, and thence proceedeth to the mind; 
sometimes it begins in the mind, and thence 
distempereth the body. Again, it proceedeth 
from worldly crosses, or scruples upon points 
of religious doctrine, decays of inward grace, 
or, as it was with David, from the deep wounds 
of some scandalous sin. Which of these is 
your own case, you must be careful to find 
out, and apply the means for cure accordingly. 
And if, upon close and careful examination, 
it prove like Achan's fraud, to be some latent 
sin, then relief can only come (as it infallibly 
will come,) by putting it away. If the cause 
be found in the state of your health, then 
acquit your soul from all that part of your 
disquietness which proceeds from this source; 
remembering in all your self-examinations, 
self-judgings, and reflections on your heart, 
that it is not directly to be charged with those 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



201 



sorrows that come from your spleen, save only 
remotely, as all other diseases are the fruits of 
sin, as a lethargic dulness is the deserved 
fruit of sin; but he that should charge it 
immediately on his soul, would wrong himself, 
and he that would attempt the cure, must do 
it on the body." 

It is admitted that such counsel as this is 
attended with more or less danger; that it 
may encourage presumption in some, and thus 
lead them to heal the hurt of their spirit too 
slightly and hastily, by resolving it into a 
cause over which they have no control, and 
for which they are not accountable. How 
many pains which afflict the soul, especially in 
later life, are only retributory. They are the 
bitter things in which the sufferer is made to 
possess the iniquities of his youth; " the physi- 
cal results of early crime in the disease and 
infirmity of the body; the mental results, in 
the weakness, disorder, and unsettledness of 
the intellect; and the moral results, in the 
hardness, impenitency, and unbelief of the 
soul." And although the petulance, impa- 



202 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tience, repining, and restive spirit which they 
often produce, are the effect of a physical cause, 
yet they are not blameless, and are no more 
to be ascribed to the mere sovereignty or pro- 
vidence of God, than is the delirium tremens 
of the drunkard, or the death of the suicide. 
It is hoped that the subject has been suffi- 
ciently guarded against this perversion, by 
what has been said in the preceding chapter. 
Unhappily, however, as has also been inti- 
mated before, many of those who need such 
instructions, are too dejected and inert to be 
aroused to make any serious and persevering 
inquiry after the source of their despondency. 
To reason with a man against the views 
which arise from melancholy, Dr. Alexander 
says, is commonly as inefficacious as reasoning 
against bodily pain. I have long made this a 
criterion, to ascertain whether the dejection 
experienced was owing to a physical cause; for 
in that case, argument, though demonstrative, 
had no effect. Mr. Douglass, of Cavers, men- 
tions the case of an aged Christian who had 
clear views of the gospel, but who suffered the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



203 



impression of his own mind, contrary to his 
own convictions and contrary to his own writ- 
ings, to prevail against acknowledged truth; 
and though conversation and reasoning might 
for a moment dissipate the darkness, yet the 
clouds would return after the rain. His belief 
in the gospel was attended with a denial of its 
applicability to himself, and while clinging to 
the Saviour, he was without a hope of partaking 
in his great and free salvation. Very many are 
predisposed to take it for granted that their 
gloom proceeds from a culpable cause, what- 
ever it may be; that the more they should in- 
vestigate the painful subject, the more they 
would discover to convince them that they were 
deceiving themselves, and that they had never 
been spiritually changed. But let no professor 
of religion in his senses, ever be tempted to 
dispose of his own case in this precipitate and 
summary way. To give indulgence to such a 
lethargic ease, while in doubt about his salva- 
tion, is evidence of a sort of hallucination, 
which, instead of impairing his responsibility, 
greatly increases both his danger and his guilt. 



204 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Let the inquiry into his own personal state, 
then, be pursued diligently, until he come to a 
satisfactory conclusion ; let him persevere under 
a persuasion of the ineffable importance of the 
duty, as involving all that is desirable or fear- 
ful in the disclosures of eternity. His despon- 
dency may be produced by false views of reli- 
gion, or these erroneous views may generate 
despondency. Nor is it in every case easy to 
determine which is cause and which is effect; 
the manner in which mind and body recipro- 
cally act upon each other being often so inscru- 
table as to baffle the attempt to distinguish 
between physical and mental causes. " Where 
despondency puts on a religious form, its real 
nature may be ascertained by inquiring into 
the actual character and circumstances of the 
sufferer. "Where there is palpable illusion, 
there is disease. False impressions may pro- 
ceed from ignorance and misapprehension, and 
such impressions will yield to moral treatment. 
But if the notions are not merely inaccurate, 
but illusive; if the mind is found to have 
shaped out for itself the ideal object of its 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



205 



desponding apprehension, there can be no 
ground for hesitation in pronouncing the de- 
pression to be bodily distemper. There are 
morbid states of mind which do not rise to 
that height of nervous disorder which produces 
hallucination, but which still indicate an un- 
healthy state of body. There is such a thing 
as the religious vapours, for which the Phar- 
macopoeia prescribes suitable remedies. But 
no one who knows what melancholy is, will 
confound that terrible visitation with any self- 
inflicted or fantastic complaints." Our second 
counsel to those who are thus afflicted, is to 
Avail themselves of judicious medical 

ADVICE. 

We refer in this direction more particularly 
to those whose state of doubting and darkness 
has been long continued. As in the case of 
Dr. Rush, the cause may exist in a morbid 
condition of the body, without being even sus- 
pected by themselves. To those whose trouble 
proceeds from this source, Baxter says again, 
" expect not that rational or spiritual remedies 
should suffice for your cure, any more than 
18 



206 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

that a good sermon or comfortable words should 
cure the falling sickness, or palsy, or a broken 
head; for your melancholy fears are as really 
a bodily disease as the other, only because 
these work on the spirits and fantasy, on which 
words of advice do also work to a certain 
extent; therefore such words, and Scripture and 
reason may somewhat resist it, and may palliate 
and allay some of the effects at the present, 
but as soon as time hath worn off the force 
and effects of these reasons, the distemper 
presently returns." 

As the cause therefore is in the animal part, 
it must be reached, if at all, by remedies which 
it comes more within the province of the 
medical than the spritual counsellor to pres- 
cribe. The physician, it is true, cannot cure 
the moral cause that preys upon the mind, and, 
through that medium, injures the body, but he 
can, in a great measure, prevent the reaction of 
the body on the mind, by which reaction the 
moral affliction is rendered infinitely more 
difficult to bear. But let it not be forgotten 
that not every physician, how skilful soever, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



207 



and learned, and successful in his general prac- 
tice, is. qualified to instruct the description of 
patients whom these remarks contemplate. No 
person has such opportunities of studying the 
mutual and reciprocating relationship between 
the mind and body, and yet it is one on which 
many of the faculty betray the most culpable 
ignorance. They want the "ability of search- 
ing out and understanding the moral causes 
of disease; they cannot read the book of the 
heart; and yet it is in this book that are in- 
scribed, day by day, and hour by hour, all the 
griefs, and all the miseries, and all the vanities, 
and all the fears, and all the joys, and all the 
hopes of man, and in which will be found 
the most active and incessant principle of that 
frightful series of organic changes which con- 
stitute pathology. Many a disease is the contre 
coup (counter blow,) so to speak, of a strong 
moral emotion. The mischief may not be ap- 
parent at the time, but its germ will be, never- 
theless, inevitably laid." Such sentiments from 
an eminent lecturer in one of the best medical 
schools of Europe, show the importance of 



208 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

special care and discretion in the choice of a 
physician for a malady which, by their own 
confession, so few understand, or know how to 
treat. Mr. Rogers advises all the afflicted of 
this sort to apply to doctors not only learned 
in the profession of physic, but who have 
themselves felt the disease; for it is impossible 
fully to understand the nature of it any other 
way than by experience: and that person, he 
says, is highly to be valued, whose endeavours 
God will bless to the removal of a complaint 
so obstinate and violent. How much evil has 
resulted from the injudicious counsel of incom- 
petent advisers who can compute'? 

Infeliciter segrotat, ubi plus est periculi, a medicamento quam a 
morbo. 

It is a sad condition for the sick, when they are put in greater 
peril by their treatment, than by their disease. 

Such, however, has been the change of late 
years in the character of diseases, and especially 
so great has been the increase of those by 
which the mind and spiritual affections are 
disturbed, that cases of this sort are better 
understood, and the number of competent ad- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



209 



visers among the faculty is much greater than 
it was formerly. It is an interesting fact, 
which is not generally known, that a large 
proportion of our more serious ailments fall 
within the category to which we now refer. 

Near the close of the seventeenth century, 
Sydenham estimated fevers to constitute, at 
that time, two-thirds of the diseases of man- 
kind. About seventy years afterwards, Dr. 
Cheyne made nervous disorders about one- 
third of the complaints of the higher class in 
England. At the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, Trotter supposed them to constitute 
full two- thirds of all those which afflicted civi- 
lized society. And a later writer still, expresses 
the opinion that even Trotter's estimate falls 
below the truth. Of the four hundred thou- 
sand persons who died in England during 
1856, one out of every eight died of diseases 
of the brain and nerves ; and one out of every 
sixteen died of diseases of the digestive organs. 
We do not pretend to decide as to the com- 
parative accuracy of these computations. It is 
enough to say, that the lowest is sufficiently 
18* 



210 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

great to appal, and also to show that no depart- 
ment of the healing art claims more earnestly 
the attention of physicians than this. If the 
connection between the mind and body be so 
intimate as has been shown, the reasonable- 
ness of this resort for medical advice would 
be obvious, even if its practical value had not 
been tested by common experience. How often 
have we known a morbid condition of the mind 
or spirits to be as speedily and as effectually 
removed by the operation of a drug, as a pain 
in the head. That peevishness, impatience, 
and irritability, which make one intolerable to 
himself as well as to others, we see daily re- 
lieved by the same simple agency, as by the 
power of magic; and hence "our domestic 
happiness often depends on the state of the 
biliary and digestive organs ; and the little dis- 
turbances of conjugal life may sometimes be 
more efficaciously cured by the physician than 
by the moralist; for a sermon or homily mis- 
applied will never act so directly as a sharp 
medicine." 

A physician in the city of Philadelphia was 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



211 



invited to visit a lady enjoying apparent 
health, living in affluence, and surrounded 
with everything which wealth and elevated 
condition, and affectionate friends could confer 
to render her happy; yet in the midst of it all 
she felt indescribably wretched, and sent for 
her medical adviser to explain the cause. It 
was a case of plethoric tendency, which called 
for depletion. A moderate bleeding afforded 
relief, and in a very few days she was restored 
to her former cheerfulness. 

The Rev. M. B. Hope, M. D., in a well 
written Essay on Religious Melancholy, men- 
tions the case of a young lady, that he had 
long and intimately known, who was "of 
a temperament highly nervous and sanguine, 
and embarked very young, with all her ardour, 
in the gay pleasures of fashionable life. A 
single season convinced her fully of their emp- 
tiness and folly. She was soon after brought 
under the influence of pungent preaching, and 
convinced of sin. The struggle was sharp and 
long; but the result was, that she gave herself, 
with all her heart, to a course of rigid religious 



212 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

duties. Above all, she seemed to live in an 
atmosphere of prayer. Her faith in the truth 
and promises of God, was without the shadow 
of a cloud. And yet she had not the pure 
enjoyment which she supposed to be the ne- 
cessary fruit of real piety. She did not, there- 
fore, look upon herself as a child of God; 
and her consequent anxiety wore upon her 
spirit, and secretly undermined her health. At 
length, one day, as she rose from prayer, the 
thought struck her, like a thunderbolt, 'what 
if there is no God, after all.' She repelled the 
thought with horror, and went her way. But 
the shock had struck from her hand 'the 
shield of faith,' and all her efforts were unable 
to grasp it again. From henceforth she found 
herself exposed to a constant shower of darts, 
fiery and poisoned, and she could not resist 
them. They stuck fast in her vitals, and drank 
up her spirits. The poison thus injected into 
the heart of her religious experience soon 
spread, and blighted the whole. She never 
knew a moment's peace, when her thoughts 
were upon her once favourite, and still engross- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



213 



ing subject. She called herself an infidel, and 
applied to herself the dreadful threatenings 
and doom of the unbeliever. And yet it was 
evident she was not, in any sense, an unbe- 
liever. She was one of the most devout and 
consistent persons we ever knew. She was 
conscientious even to scrupulosity. She was 
a most devoted and faithful Sunday-school 
teacher, and God blessed her labours to the 
conversion of nearly all her scholars. She re- 
joiced to hear of persons becoming Christians, 
and would often say, with despair in her tones, 
how she envied them. When any of her ac- 
quaintances died without giving good evidence 
of piety, she became excited, and, as she ex- 
pressed it, was ready to scream aloud. She 
gave every possible evidence that she had not, 
in reality, a shadow of a doubt about the truth 
of revelation. And yet no one ever dreamed 
that her difficulties were connected with dis- 
ease of any sort; for her mind was remarkably 
clear, and active. The advice of pious friends 
and ministers, therefore, based upon the suppo- 
sition that her case was one of spiritual dark- 



214 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ness, or satanic temptation, was to persevere in 
prayer — to struggle on more earnestly, and 
God would give her light after he had tried 
her faith and patience and love. But the more 
she prayed and struggled, the worse she grew. 
She would come from her closet exhausted 
with the fearful conflict, and looking ready to 
sink into utter despair. The Sabbath was 
always the worst day of the week; and the 
labour and exhaustion of teaching aggravated 
her symptoms. 

The only treatment which was successful, 
in this case, would by many have been re- 
jected with horror. She was advised to give 
up the struggle which she had maintained so 
unequally, and which would only have resulted 
in disastrous consequences — to think as little 
as possible on the subject — to spend less time 
in devotional exercises, and allow her mind to 
gather its scattered strength by relaxation. 
The form of prayer advised was short and 
audible, and such as took for granted what she 
had been struggling to convince herself of. 
Incessant pains were taken to present the cha- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



215 



racter of God in a simple, affectionate, parental 
light, when anything led to the subject. The 
simplicity of faith, and the certainty of salva- 
tion, were occasionally flashed across her mind, 
when it was in a suitable frame. The only 
two evidences of piety which her state of mind 
rendered available, were kept prominent as the 
basis of new feelings and hopes, viz. her love 
to the people of God, and the pain she felt 
in the absence of Divine favour, and the long- 
ing for its return. These were untouched by 
the dismal monster that had preyed upon her 
hopes. 

By a judicious perseverance in a course 
like this, accompanied with well directed hy- 
gienic measures, suitable recreation, exercise, 
and diet, for improving her general health, and 
especially the tone of her nervous system, the 
mental energies began to react, and new views 
of truth and new hopes spring up in her 
mind." 

Another case, furnished by the same, and 
adduced for the sake of showing the efficacy 
of judicious medical treatment, is that of "a 



216 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

lady, whose state of mind had "baffled every 
attempt made by her judicious husband, to 
bring her relief. She was a woman of great 
refinement and strength of mind, eminently 
pious, and devoted to her interesting young 
family, whose education she conducted herself. 
While conferring every accomplishment upon 
her children, she was mainly anxious for their 
spiritual welfare. When we saw her, she was 
intensely excited, and had slept little for seve- 
ral nights. She said she had lost all interest 
in the instruction of her children, and had 
become utterly regardless of their personal ap- 
pearance and her own. Her whole thoughts 
and feelings were engrossed about their sal- 
vation, her anxiety for which had become 
insupportably agonizing. When instructing, 
or dressing, or leading them out for their 
accustomed exercise, she was incessantly dis- 
tracted with the thought, What good will all 
this do, while they are still impenitent ! Though 
her flushed face and flashing restless eye, indi- 
cated strong physical excitement, yet her mind 
was so clear on every subject, and all her views 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 217 

so rational, that we attributed the whole diffi- 
culty to excessive and protracted anxiety for an 
object of peculiar interest to a pious mother — 
the salvation of her children. We made re- 
peated attempts to reason with her on the error 
and evils of her present state of mind. She 
admitted fully the justice of our reasoning, and 
concurred in the truth of all our positions; 
but we found that this was of no avail. Her 
excitement continued, and with it her distress, 
and all her difficulties. It appeared like a case 
of pure religious excitement, and was so looked 
upon by all her family. They did not deem 
her deranged, but it was evident she soon 
would be, unless relieved. Finding reasoning 
of no avail, and the excitement still increasing, 
we became convinced, on minute examination, 
that the whole difficulty originated, not in reli- 
gious views or feelings at all, but in a morbid 
increase of arterial action, arising from some 
physical cause. One-twelfth of a grain of tartar 
emetic, five or six times a day, gave perfect 
relief, and restored both her views and feelings 
to the healthy standard." 
19 



218 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Dryden, whose mind, notwithstanding its 
capacity for elevated and brilliant conceptions, 
was sometimes turbid and dull, well knew the 
utility of medical expedients as auxiliary to 
thought. "When I have a grand design before 
me," says he, "I ever take physic and let blood; 
for when you would have pure swiftness of 
thought and fiery flights of fancy, you must 
have a care of the pensive part, and for this, 
get help from the apothecary." Descartes, the 
philosopher, went farther still, and asserted 
that if any means can be found to render men 
wiser and more ingenious than they have been 
hitherto, such a method must be sought from 
the assistance of medicine. And Plutarch, 
speaking of the reaction of the mind upon the 
body as the cause of those injuries which it 
requires medicine to repair, very playfully 
observes, that "should the body sue the mind 
before a court of judicature, for damages, it 
would be found that the mind had proved to be 
a ruinous tenant to its landlord." 

None, we trust, will infer from what has thus 
been said of medical assistance, that we approve 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



219 



of that habitual tampering with drugs, or the 
injudicious perusal of medical books, which is 
so common with the nervous valetudinarian, by 
which he only makes his malady the worse. 

Exuperat magis, segrescitque rnedendo. 

The disease is aggravated by the means used to cure it. 

Rousseau admitted that this was a powerful 
cause of hypochondria in respect to himself. 
"Having read," he says, u a little on physio- 
logy, I set about studying anatomy; and pass- 
ing in review the number and varied actions of 
the parts which compose my frame, I expected 
twenty times a day to feel them going wrong. 
Far from being astonished at finding myself 
dying, my wonder was that I could live at all. 
I did not read the description of any disease 
which I did not imagine myself to be affected 
with ; and I am sure that if I had not been ill, 
I must have become so from this fatal study. 
Finding in every complaint the symptoms of 
my own, I believed I had got them all, and 
thereby added another still more intolerable, 
the fantasy of curing myself." All this private 
empiricism we would discourage, by directing 



220 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the sufferer away from these experiments upon 
himself, to the well-taught physician, that more 
competent counsellor, who has been designated 
by Providence. Another important auxiliary 
to the desponding Christian is 

Suitable society, 
or habitual intercourse with others, and espe- 
cially the devout, who possess a happier tem- 
perament. 

Whatever cheerful and serene 

Supports the mind, supports the body too. 

The influence of sympathy, its operation for 
both evil and good, is familiarly known. " We 
are all," as Locke says, "a kind of chameleon, 
who take a moral tinge from the objects which 
surround us." The manifestation of fear or of 
confidence and self-possession in a time of dan- 
ger, inspires a corresponding emotion in those 
who behold it. The "quid times'? Caesarem 
vehis," or Caesar's appeal to the affrighted 
shipmaster, not to be afraid while he was 
aboard, will occur as a striking illustration; 
and how we all assimilate in character, as well 
as in manners, to those with whom we asso- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 221 

ciate, is a fact of daily observation. Hence the 
salutary effect of a cheerful, sanguine Chris- 
tian, upon those who are prone to melancholy. 
As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth 
the countenance of his friend. His society is ex- 
hilarating, like the wine prescribed by Solomon 
to those that be of heavy hearts. An inter- 
view with those of their own morbid tenden- 
cies may be advantageous sometimes, by cor- 
recting the usual mistake of such believers, 
that their case is peculiar, or has certain unfa- 
vourable characteristics, by which it is placed 
without the reach of the ordinary means of 
relief. A comparison of exercises and senti- 
ments is often productive of good, in showing 
that their condition is not so singular as they 
had imagined. It is very hard indeed to per- 
suade a person under great pain and anguish, 
and the sense of the wrath of God, and a fear 
of hell, that ever any has heretofore been so 
perplexed as he. Such, generally, think them- 
selves worse than Cain, or Judas, or Simon 
Magus, and that their sins have greater ag- 
gravation. Mr. Rogers says, "I have known 
19* 



222 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

several that were long afflicted with trouble of 
mind, and melancholy — as Mr. Rosewell and 
Mr. Porter — both ministers, the latter whereof 
was six years oppressed with this distemper; 
yet afterwards both rejoiced in the light of 
God's countenance. I myself was near two 
years in great pain of body, and greater pain 
of soul, and without any prospect of peace or 
help; and yet God hath revived me in his 
sovereign grace and mercy; and there have 
been several heretofore sorely perplexed with 
great inward and outward trouble, whom God 
after that wonderfully refreshed. Mr. Robert 
Bruce, some time ago minister at Edinburgh, 
was twenty years in terrors of conscience, and 
yet delivered afterwards." From the prevail- 
ing lack of sympathy with which such sufferers 
meet, many prefer to hide their sorrows in 
their own bosom, to the risk of opening their 
heart to those who could poorly appreciate an 
experience so foreign to their own. Thus the 
late Captain Benjamin Wickes, of Philadel- 
phia, concealed his long and oppressive melan- 
choly for nearly twenty years, until it was dis- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



223 



covered by that devoted servant of Christ, Mr. 
Joseph Eastburn, whose affectionate conversa- 
tion and judicious counsels were the means of 
affording immediate relief. 

How far the distressing symptoms of Cow- 
per's malady were mitigated by the delightful 
society of the Unwins, is easily inferred from 
his memoirs; nor are any of us so imperturb- 
able in our spiritual temperament, as not to 
be more or less lifted up or depressed by the 
joy or sadness of those Christian friends with 
whom we mingle. And hence one of four car- 
dinal rules, which the eminent casuist already 
quoted, has given to melancholy Christians, is 
to "keep company with the more cheerful 
sort of the godly; converse with men of the 
strongest faith, that have much of the heavenly 
mirth of believers, which faith doth fetch from 
the blood of Christ and from the promises of 
his word, and who can speak experimentally 
of the joy of the Holy Ghost, and these will 
be a great help to the reviving of your spirit 
and changing your melancholy habit, so far as 
without a physician it may be expected." On 



224 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the other hand, decline, so far as practicable, 
the society of the gloomy and disconsolate. 
Their sorrowful spirit, like an evil distemper, 
is contagious, and your influence upon each 
other will be reciprocally prejudicial. 

Oderunt hilarem tristes, tristemque jocosi. 

The grave dislike the cheerful, and the merry hate the grave. 

Some physiologists contend that laughter, 
as one of the greatest aids to digestion, is 
highly conducive to health, and therefore Hufe- 
land, physician to the king of Prussia, com- 
mends the wisdom of the ancients, who main- 
tained a jester, that was always present at 
their meals, "whose quips and cranks would 
keep the table in a roar." Dr. Everard Mayn- 
waring, in his " Tutela Sanitatis," published in 
1663, tells his melancholy patients to walk in 
the green fields, orchards, parks, and gardens — 
to avoid solitariness, and keep merry company. 
In the chapter entitled "Hygiastic Precautions 
and Rules appropriate to the various Passions 
of Mind," he says: "Mirth subtiliates, purifies, 
and cheers the spirits ; puts them upon activity 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



225 



that before were torpid, dull, and heavy, and 
excites them to operation and duty in the 
several faculties; volatizeth, rarities, and atte- 
nuates gross, feculant, obstructing humours; 
preserves youth, vigour, and beauty; makes 
the body plump and fat, by expanding the 
spirits into the external parts, and conveying 
nutriment, whose wholesome effects are much 
the same with those of exercise, and may well 
supply when that is wanting. 

Dum fata sinunt vivite laeti. — Seneca. 

While the fates permit, let your life be cheerful." 

Such counsel, quoted from the old Roman 
philosopher, on whom Father Jerome bestows 
such extravagant praise, is much better than 
some of his instructions for carrying it into 
effect. But how much wiser the teaching of 
Paul, who would provide against a large pro- 
portion of our disquietudes in life, by a 
removal of the cause. We are prone to look 
no further than to our own case, as if it 
were peculiar, and nobody ever suffered in 
the same way, or to the same extent, with 
ourselves. But this, the apostle teaches, is 



226 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

as impolitic as it is selfish. Look not every 
man on his own things, but every man also on 
the things of others. Do not dwell in per- 
petual meditation on the ills that afflict your- 
selves, but turn your thoughts sometimes to 
the incomparably greater trials of others. Your 
mind may be depressed and sad under the 
influence of some imagined or real malady, but 
is it not because you forget how much better 
is your condition than that of many whose 
" days are blackness, whose every breath is in 
suffering, and who feed on tears'?" You may 
not possess your wonted ease of locomotion, 
and perhaps spend many long days and nights 
in great pain. But what is all that you endure, 
a hundred-fold increased, compared with the 
bitter cup of a poor suffering cripple, mentioned 
by Dr. Hall, who says that he was living 
in 1859, at the age of forty-five, with every 
joint in his body as immovable as a solid 
bone, except those of two toes and two fingers. 
His jaws have been set and motionless for 
thirty years, the only aperture through which 
he receives food being that made by the falling 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



227 



out of his front teeth. In the Journal of 
Health for 1859, is a sprightly letter to the 
editor, from a correspondent in Virginia, who 
describes himself as rigid and helpless as a 
mass of stone; his eyes and tongue being 
the only members over which he has the 
least control. "My digestive organs," he 
writes, "have lost their activity, and I have a 
distressing asthmatic affection. The inability 
to open my jaws forces me to subsist upon 
such food as I can compress through a cavity 
made by the loss of two of my teeth." But 
the aspect of his letter is bright and genial, 
indicating a livelier sense of the Divine benefi- 
cence than thousands show, who have health 
and everything around them to make life 
happy. Examples of such utter physical dis- 
ability in the organs of the body, and derange- 
ment of their functions, are comparatively rare. 
But what a rebuke do they minister to the 
thousands of murmurers who habitually under- 
value the blessings of Providence, because 
their abundance and commonness make them 
so familiar. One of the happiest persons we 



228 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ever heard of, was a lady who was so pros- 
trated by palsy that she had no power over 
a limb or muscle from her neck downwards, 
and could move no part of her whole person 
but her head. Dr. Paley says, that one great 
cause of our insensibility to the goodness of 
the Creator, is the very eoctensiveness of his 
bounty. We prize but little what we share 
only in common with the rest, or with the 
generality of our species. When we hear of 
blessings, we think forthwith of successes, of 
prosperous fortunes, of honours, riches, prefer- 
ments — i. e., of those advantages and superiori- 
ties over others which we happen either to 
possess, or to be in pursuit of, or to covet. 
The common benefits of our nature entirely 
escape us. Yet these are the great things; 
these constitute what most properly ought to 
be accounted blessings of Providence; what 
alone, if we might so speak, are worthy of 
its care. Nightly rest and daily bread, the 
ordinary use of our limbs, and senses, and 
understandings, are gifts which admit of no 
comparison with any other. Yet, because 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 229 

almost every man we meet with possesses these, 
we leave them out of our enumeration; they 
raise no sentiment, they move no gratitude. 
Now, herein is our judgment perverted by our 
selfishness. A blessing ought, in truth, to be 
the more satisfactory — the bounty at least of 
the donor is rendered more conspicuous by its 
very diffusion, its commonness, its cheapness; 
by its falling to the lot, and forming the hap- 
piness of the great bulk and body of our spe- 
cies, as well as ourselves. Nay, even when we 
do not possess it, it ought to be a matter of 
thankfulness that others do. But we have a 
different way of thinking. "We court distinc- 
tion — that I do not quarrel with — but we can 
see nothing but what has distinction to recom- 
mend it. This necessarily contracts our view 
of the Creator's beneficence within a narrow 
compass; and most unjustly. It is in those 
things which are so common as to be no dis- 
tinction, that the amplitude of the Divine 
benignity is perceived. The thirty-sixth chap- 
ter of his work on Natural Theology, entitled 
"The Goodness of the Deity," from which we 
20 



230 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

have taken the preceding paragraphs, his bio- 
grapher says, was "written under the pangs of 
the stone." 

Solomon's opinion of the beneficial effect of 
cheerfulness is easily inferred, not only from 
the manner in which he commends it, but 
the frequency. A merry heart, he says, doeth 
good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth 
the bones. Or, as it is better rendered per- 
haps, in the old translation, "A joyful heart 
causeth good health; but a sorrowful mind 
drieth the bones." A fourth counsel, of incal- 
culable value to those who would enjoy spirit- 
ual comfort, is to 

Be temperate. 

We refer not merely to the total disuse of 
alcoholic drinks and intoxicating drugs, which 
will be presumed, of course, but to that habit- 
ual control over every appetite, which will 
keep us within the limits that are prescribed 
by both reason and health. 

Learn temperance, friends; and hear without disdain 
The choice of water. Thus the Coan sage* 
Opin'd, and thus the learned of every school. 

* Hippocrates. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



231 



In respect /to drink, Dr. Johnson says, " water 
is the only fluid which does not possess irri- 
tating, or at least, stimulating qualities; and in 
proportion as we rise on the scale of potation, 
from table-beer to ardent spirits, in the same 
ratio we educate the stomach and bowels for 
that state of morbid sensibility, which, in civi- 
lized life, will sooner or later supervene." 

It does not properly fall within the scope 
of the writer to furnish such details as would 
be expected in a dietetical treatise, and which 
would come with more authority from an ex- 
perienced physician. Burton, in his most 
extraordinary work called the "Anatomy of 
Melancholy," has given a curious disquisition 
on the intrinsic qualities of different kinds of 
food, and of their comparative tendency to 
nurture certain pleasant or painful affections 
of the mind, as well as animal propensities; 
but like many of the opinions of this eccentric 
writer, it is to be- received with some material 
abatements. Dr. Rush, however, asserts that 
the effects of diet upon the moral faculty are 
more certain, though less attended to, than the 



232 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

effects of climate; that the quality, as well as 
the quantity of the aliment, has its influence; 
and that pride, cruelty, and sensuality, are as 
much the natural consequences of luxurious 
living, as are apoplexies and palsies. Fulness 
of bread, we are told, was one of the predis- 
posing causes of the vices of the cities of the 
plain. He concurs, too, with Dr. Paris and 
other eminent medical writers, both foreign 
and domestic, in reprobating the too free use 
of animal food by persons of sedentary habits, 
which not only predisposes to inflammatory 
diseases, but has a sensible influence on the 
morals. Dr. McNish, of Glasgow, quotes with 
approbation another opinion of Hufeland, that 
"infants who are accustomed to eat much 
animal food become robust, but at the same 
time passionate, violent, and brutal." It is 
said that a man living solely on beef, as the 
Indians generally do, and full of freedom and 
fresh air, has blood very nearly approaching, 
in chemical character, to that of a lion; the 
fibrin and red globules being more abundant, 
in proportion to the liquor sanguinis, and the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



233 



temper of his mind approximates to the indo- 
mitable savage. When the Hon. C. A. Murray 
had been living for some time entirely on 
buffalo-beef, among the Pawnee Indians, his 
body got into the true savage training, and in 
the excitement and liberty of the wilds, he 
enjoyed the perfection of his animal nature. 
In describing the kind of intoxication arising 
from over-stimulating blood, he says, "I have 
never known such excitement in any exer- 
cise as I have experienced from a solitary 
walk among the mountains; thoughts crowd 
upon thoughts, which I can neither control 
nor breathe in words." The efficacy of a 
vegetable diet upon the passions, was veri- 
fied in the practice of Dr. Arbuthnot, who 
assures us that he cured several patients of 
irascible tempers, by nothing but the pre- 
scription of a simple vegetable regimen. Some 
devout persons, like Payson, have erred on 
the side of excessive abstinence; which his 
biographer pronounces to have been the great 
mistake of his life. To what extremes others 
20* 



234 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

have been carried under the influence of 
superstition, to mortify the body for the sins 
of the soul, is familiar to all who are con- 
versant with the history of Asceticism; but the 
more common and dangerous error by far, is 
the opposite, or that of indulging the appe- 
tite too freely. 

When we contemplate each varying tribe 
of mankind, from the turtle-eating alderman 
to the earth-devouring Ottomaque, and see him 
subsist, exclusively or collectedly, on every- 
thing which air, earth, or ocean can produce, 
with (cceteris paribus, other things being equal) 
an equal degree of longevity, we are irresisti- 
bly led to the conclusion, that it is principally 
by excess that we convert food into poison, and 
become liable to the attack of that Protean host 
of human miseries, called Nervous Diseases. 
Thus, Dr. Combe reasserts, with special appro- 
bation, the published opinion of a distinguished 
American physician, that intemperate eating is 
almost a universal fault; that it is begun in the 
cradle, and continued till we go down to the 
grave ; that it is far more common than intern- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



235 



perance in drinking; and the aggregate of mis- 
chief that it does, is greater. 

Plures crapula, quam gladius. 
Gluttony kills more than the sword. / 

"For every reeling drunkard that disgraces 
our country, it contains one hundred persons 
who eat to excess and suffer by the practice." 
Baglivi, a celebrated Roman physician, men- 
tions, that in Italy an unusually large propor- 
tion of the sick recovered during Lent, in 
consequence of the lower diet which is then 
observed as a part of the religious duties of 
the season. An eminent physician of London, 
writing on the influence of the luxurious habits 
of that great metropolis on the health of the 
higher classes, asserts that there is not one in 
ten whose digestive organs are in a healthy 
condition. This is proved, he says, incontest- 
ably, by the tint of the eye and countenance, 
the feel of the skin, the state of the tongue, 
the stomach, and the bile. 

Let the whole subject of dietetic economy 
then, be carefully regarded by those who are 
subject to spiritual and nervous depression; 



236 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and while the conflicting opinions of the fac- 
ulty, on the subject of diet or regimen, will 
abundantly show how "doctors disagree," yet 
they are, nevertheless, replete w T ith suggestions 
of the highest practical value. It need hardly 
be remarked, that independent of the influence 
on the animal spirits and health, yet, as pre- 
scribed by Christian morality, the appetites 
should be kept under habitual control. The 
spiritual man should learn, with the apostle 
Paul, to keep his body under. He should live 
in that elevated state of communion with God, 
that he will not be tempted to descend from 
the higher and purer enjoyments of his reli- 
gion, to seek happiness in the gratification of 
the epicurean and sensualist. But how far it 
is lawful to indulge a healthful appetite at his 
table from day to day, is a question of morals 
which cannot be settled for a Christian by any 
of the rules of medical science or physiology. 
Put a knife to thy throat, Solomon says, if thou 
be a man given to appetite. Restrain thyself, as 
if excess or repletion were death. But what 
may be received as at once the fruit of expe- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 237 

rience and the dictate of science, has been 
expressed in the measures of a writer not less 
gifted with poetic genius than with medical 
knowledge: 

beyond the sense 

Of light refection, at the genial board 
Indulge not often, nor protract the feast 
To dull satiety. 

Dr. Holland's three rules are: 1. Not to 'eat 
so much nor so long, as to cause a sense of 
uneasy repletion. 2. The rate of eating always 
to be so slow as to allow thorough mastication. 
3. Use no urgent exercise, either of body or 
mind, immediately after a full meal. Rules," 
he remarks, "whose simplicity and familiarity 
may lessen their seeming value, yet in practice 
they will be found to include, directly or indi- 
rectly, a great proportion of the cases that come 
before the faculty for treatment." To these, 
however, he virtually adds a fourth, in a subse- 
quent paragraph, in which he earnestly dehorts 
from the pernicious habit of directing the atten- 
tion, after eating, to the region of the stomach, 
as tending greatly to disturb the process of 



238 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

digestion. To the question, How much ought 
I to eat 7 ? Dr. Hall says, it ought to be a suffi- 
cient rule for all men of common sense, to 
reply — Eat what you want, and as much as 
you want, and at regular times. But in the 
imperfect subjection to reason, instinct, and 
appetite, in which we find ourselves, a more 
definite guide is needed. The amount of food 
required differs with the different seasons. 
We need more in winter than in summer. It 
differs with the weather; more food is needed 
in a cold, damp, raw day, than in a cheerful, 
dry, warm one. Men require more food than 
women; those who labour, more than those 
who rest; those who are growing, more than 
those who have reached maturity. To lay 
down rules for all these, would require a better 
memory than could be exercised; and to weigh 
out the food to each particular case, would be 
attended with a very great deal of trouble. 
His opinion is, that in most cases, sedentary 
men in health eat too much, and that the 
necessity for so many hours of bodily exercise 
which many undergo, is a penalty for exces- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



239 



sive indulgence of appetite. Doubtless a cer- 
tain quantity of food is necessary to sustain the 
physical man in the vigorous use of his bodily 
functions; so is exercise not less needful for 
the twofold object, first, to work off and push 
out from the body all that is foreign, old, and 
useless; second, to replace these with strong, 
well-made particles; thus keeping the system 
clear of all rubbish, and replenishing it with 
what is new and perfect. And yet it may be 
incidentally remarked here — and it contains a 
great practical truth — the less a man eats, to 
a certain limit, the less he has to work off. 
Hence, those who eat little and work little, can 
study quite as much, and as advantageously, as 
those who eat a great deal, and, in order to get 
rid of their surplusage, have either to spend a 
large share of their time in working, or in 
washing or scrubbing it off with hard flesh- 
brushes — that is to say, for the few minutes' 
pleasure of the passage of food down the throat, 
hours of otherwise unrequited exercise have to 
be gone through, or dancing under cool shower- 
baths, or the purgatorial application of hair- 



240 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

gloves or bristle-brushes. If literary men would 
drink only water, and eat one-half less, they 
could well afford to dispense with the fruitless 
exercises and penances just referred to. 

Few persons afflicted with despondency are 
aware how their malady is often aggravated by 
the occasional irritation of food or drink react- 
ing on their mind by reason of the morbid 
sensibility of the stomach. Dr. Johnson says, 
"I have known many persons that found them- 
selves so irritable after eating certain articles 
of difficult digestion, that they avoided society 
till the fit went off." Hence the rule that he 
gives to enable each person to decide his own 
case is, "Any discomfort of body, any irritabi- 
lity or despondency of mind succeeding food or 
drink, at the distance of an hour, a day, or even 
two or three days, may be regarded — other 
evident causes being absent — as a presumptive 
proof that the quantity has been too much, or 
the quality injurious." It is said, in the Life 
of President Edwards, that although of an 
infirm constitution and indifferent health, yet 
he was able to spend thirteen hours daily in 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



241 



his study. This surprising power of endurance 
is explained in the succeeding paragraph, in 
which we read that he carefully observed the 
effects of different sorts of food, and selected 
those which best fitted him for mental labour. 
Having also ascertained the quantity of food 
which, while it sustained his bodily strength, 
left his mind most sprightly and active, he 
scrupulously confined himself within the pre- 
scribed limits. But not to dwell in details that 
are so accessible in elaborate treatises on this 
very subject, and that are deservedly held in 
the highest repute, we will only add, that the 
substance of what we have designed to say in 
the preceding remarks, is comprehended in an 
old Latin distich, by whom composed we do 
not recollect: 

Si tibi deficiant medici, medici tibi fiant 

Haec tria; mens hilaris, requies, moderata dioeta, 

which one has paraphrased in the following 
clumsy couplet, 



Employ three physicians; first, Doctor Diet, 
Then Doctor Merryman, with Doctor Quiet, 

21 



242 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Another counsel to be heeded with special 
care by the desponding, is to 

Be habitually occupied. 

We refer not to bodily exercise merely, so 
essential to vigorous health, and to a lively 
flow of the animal spirits, but we speak of 
occupation for the mind, in connection with 
some useful employment, to save it from those 
morbid actings by which it is made the prey 
to its own energies. Many diseases of body 
are produced, increased, and perpetuated by 
the attention being directed to the disordered 
part, but the employment which diverts the 
attention from the disease, often cures it. It 
is said that Kant was able to forget the pain of 
gout by a voluntary effort of thought; and 
paroxysms of his disease, that would have laid 
others aside, were scarcely heeded, while his 
mind was absorbed by some problem in meta- 
physics. We once knew an enterprising and 
successful man of business, who had hardly 
reached the meridian of his life before he had 
made a handsome fortune. He was now ad- 
vised to sell his establishment, and live for the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



243 



future more at his ease. The counsel was 
well intended; it seemed to be judicious, and 
was followed; but the sudden abstraction of so 
much care, by which his mind had been dis- 
tended, caused a collapse. He soon became 
unhappy, desponding, and would have sunk 
into a state of melancholy, but for the interpo- 
sition of friends, who perceived at once his 
alarming condition, and the obvious cause. 
Without asking his consent, they re-purchased 
his place of business, and induced him to 
resume it. In a few weeks he recovered his 
former cheerfulness and mental energy. Em- 
ployment gave a healthful stimulus to his 
mind, which suffered no relapse to its former 
morbid state through many years to the close 
of a long and useful life. 

"Whoever has noticed the amazing power of 
the thoughts in disturbing the functions of the 
body, will accord with the poet, that 

'Tis the great art of life to manage well 
The restless mind. 

This is none the less true in relation to 
religious men than to others. "There are 



244 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



many," Cecil says, "who sit at home, nursing 
themselves over a fire, and then trace up the 
natural effects of solitude, and want of air and 
exercise, into spiritual desertion. But this is 
to confound nature and grace, and to make a 
sort of mystery of that which is readily con- 
nected with a natural cause." Now and then 
we find one who appears to be happy in a sort 
of quietism, or cloistered piety, which rather 
shuns than seeks communion with what is 
without. How it will be in the world to 
come, we do not pretend to say; but it has 
never been found in this, that they are the 
happiest in religion who withdraw from all 
active occupation, and spend their whole time 
in devout contemplation. No man, it has been 
said, is ever more religious for having his mind 
constantly occupied with religion. This may 
seem a paradox, but those who know how 
little necessary connection there is between 
theological studies and spirituality of mind, 
and how much a professional familiarity with 
such subjects tends to deteriorate their influ- 
ence, will readily subscribe to the truth of the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



245 



assertion. Although the truly pious man can 
have but one dominant motive, the glory of 
God, yet the active powers of the mind will 
find useful and pleasant exercise in a thousand 
different ways of promoting it. To be engaged 
in doing good, then, is alike needful to the 
happiness of the spiritual man and to his 
health. 

Under a former head, we quoted one of four 
rules for the relief of melancholy Christians, 
and here we add another from the same author, 
viz., "to avoid idleness and want of employ- 
ment; which, as it is a life not pleasing to God, 
so it is the opportunity for melancholy thoughts 
to be working, and the chiefest season for 
Satan to tempt us." It has often been observed 
in relation to clergymen who have been labori- 
ous and useful, that they ill endure a change to 
leisure from the occupation of a pastoral charge ; 
but that in their sine titulo condition, they are 
apt to become either nervous and low-spirited, 
or turn to doing harm. 

We were struck with a remark of Dr. Green, 
many years ago, on his retirement from Prince- 
21* 



246 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ton, "that he did not know whether hereafter 
he should do much good; but he was resolved, 
if possible, to avoid doing mischief, which was 
more than was apt to be true of many of his 
brethren in similar circumstances." 

To brood over our spiritual maladies, watch- 
ing from day to day our changing frames, will 
no more help to attain a better spiritual condi- 
tion, than the fingering of his pulse, or exam- 
ining the tongue, by the victim of dyspepsia, 
will conduce to his more heathful digestion. 
In either case, the less he thinks of himself 
the better; and the only effectual expedient 
for diverting his thoughts will be found in 
some pleasant and useful occupation. Such 
was the relief which Cowper derived from his 
labour in translating Homer, and the poetical 
works of Madam Guion; and to find an anti- 
dote to his distressing melancholy was sup- 
posed to be Dr. Johnson's main inducement 
for proposing, towards the close of his life, to 
publish a translation of Thuanus. For the 
same purpose of turning his mind from its 
troubling meditations, he advised Boswell, who 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



247 



was as much given to despondency as himself, 
"never to speak of it to his friends in com- 
pany." 

Were I asked, a well-known writer says, 
upon what circumstance the prevention of 
low spirits chiefly depended, I should borrow 
the ancient orator's mode of enforcing the 
leading principle of his art, and reply, Em- 
ployment — employment — employment. This 
is the grand panacea for the tsedium vitae, and 
all the train of fancied evils which prove so 
much more insupportable than real ones. It 
is a medicine that may be presented in a 
thousand forms, all equally efficacious. Chris- 
tians who have nothing to do but to sit think- 
ing of themselves, meditating, sentimentalizing, 
(or mysticizing,) are almost sure to become the 
prey of dark, black misgivings. The history of 
a human soul is marvellous. We are myste- 
ries; but here is the history of it all — for sad- 
ness, for suffering, for misgiving, there is no 
remedy but stirring and doing. 

We remember the case of a fellow-student 
in our theological course, whose mind was so 



248 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

disquieted with fears about his spiritual condi- 
tion, that it became a serious question whether 
he should not renounce the hope of entering 
the ministry; but upon a statement of his case 
to one of his teachers, he was advised to dis- 
continue his examinations of himself for a 
season, take it for granted, if he pleased, that 
his state was as bad as he feared, but to turn 
his attention to the case of others, pray more 
for them, and resolve to do all in his power 
for their salvation. This counsel was received, 
and was followed with the happiest results. 
His mind was gradually relieved, his spirits 
became buoyant and cheerful, and after finish- 
ing his studies, he entered the sacred profes- 
sion with a joyful hope of his calling and sal- 
vation, which continued to the end of his life. 
Rev. Dr. Lobdell was at one time in a state 
of distressing doubt about three great ques- 
tions pertaining to Christianity — Whether it 
was true? — Was he personally interested in 
it] — Had he been called of God to preach 
it] The very solicitude which he felt on the 
subject was evidence of his spiritual change, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



249 



although he seemed not to know it. But 
instead of first undertaking to investigate the 
evidences of Christianity, then the subject of 
his personal faith and salvation, and, last of 
all, his call to the ministry, the process was 
exactly reversed. He first resolved to make 
it the purpose of his life to preach the gospel. 
"Then, and not till then, did he experience 
the preciousness of the Saviour to his own 
soul." His doubts and difficulties all vanished 
like darkness and mist before the rising sun. 
It was by doing of the will of God that he 
was made to know the truth of his doctrine. 
And so on in all his future life, whenever 
doubts and difficulties revived, they were re- 
moved, not by reasoning, but by losing sight 
of them in doing the will of his Divine Mas- 
ter. We would say, then, to every troubled 
believer, copy his example. Let not an elevated 
condition in life, and wealth, if you have them, 
tempt you to be idle. If not required to toil 
for your daily bread, yet let a regard for your 
happiness and health, and the monitions of 



250 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



conscience, make you as industrious as if you 
were. Consider your affluence and leisure as 
talents, by means of which you have the envia- 
ble opportunity of promoting the welfare of 
many gratuitously, in a thousand modes, which 
are forbidden to others. Go join yourself to 
the most active benefactors of society; enter 
their ranks, or plant yourself in the van. Take 
your full share in the labours of the Sunday- 
school or Bible-class teacher, the distribution of 
tracts, the visiting of the poor and sick, and 
afflicted. Deny yourself many gratifications of 
ease, and pleasure, and advantage, for the sake 
of redeeming the time and the means of doing 
more good. Aim directly, like Harlan Page, 
at the single object of saving men's souls; and 
whether your success shall correspond to your 
wishes or not, you will enjoy the reflex advan- 
tage of your benevolence. In watering others, 
you shall be watered yourself. 

We are aware of the difficulty of complying 
with this counsel, in many cases, and none are 
more peculiarly trying than those of clergy- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



251 



men, who, from declining health, advancing 
age, or some untoward events, have been dis- 
lodged from posts of active usefulness, and have 
now nothing to do which is suited to their cha- 
racter, capacity, and circumstances. Such, it is 
well known, is often the unhappy condition of 
some of the most useful, as well as respectable 
and venerable ministers of the church; and it 
is one of the ominous signs of the times, that 
their number seems to be increasing. From 
the emoluments of their calling, few derive 
more than the means for a very frugal main- 
tenance of their family, and therefore, when by 
reason of age and multiplied infirmities, the 
grasshopper has become a burden, they find 
superadded to all their afflictions, the trials of 
poverty. We will not enlarge; but for our- 
selves, we are constrained to say that we feel 
it to be a material defect in our ecclesiastical 
economy, that their condition and claims are 
not more particularly and tenderly regarded; 
that in view of the resources and benevolence 
of the Church, something has not been pro- 



252 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

jected at least, if not carried into effect, by 
which such an important casus omissus should 
have been provided for, some feasible plan by 
which their remaining strength, their stores of 
learning and experience, may be turned to a 
profitable account, and these Mnasons of the 
ministry made happy and useful during the 
remnant of their pilgrimage. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



253 



CHAPTER V. 

COUNSELS. 

Sine animo corpus, nec sine corpore 
Aninras, bene valere potest. 

The mind or body ill, each partner feels 
The sufferings of the other. 

In the kind and suggestive letter of the friend 
referred to in our introductory note, the writer 
dwelt with special earnestness on the subject of 
health. We did not then know to what extent 
his counsels "to watch and promote bodily 
health" were prompted by the precarious state 
of his own. The influence of the body on the 
mental and moral faculties, shows the impor- 
tance of a scrupulous attention to the former; 
to the use of all the means by which it may be 
preserved from any form of disease, and in the 
healthful exercise of all its functions. The fact 
cannot be impressed too deeply, that the con- 
nection between our sad and joyous emotions 
22 



254 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and our health, is as inseparable as is that 
between the machinery of a clock or watch and 
the hands on the dial-plate: the movements 
which meet the eye are right or wrong, accord- 
ing to the condition of the wheels and parts 
that are invisible. 

On a subject of so much interest we have the 
teachings of many authors, some of whom not 
only weary by their diffuse details, but greatly 
perplex the mind by their disagreement among 
themselves. To those who need instruction 
most, and who have not the opportunity nor 
the time for much reading of this sort, it may 
be useful, at the risk of being thought prolix, 
to recapitulate and present again, in a con- 
nected form and with some amplification, a few 
of the instructions given very briefly in the 
preceding pages, on the authority of Drs. Hol- 
land, Hall, Rush, and others, that enforce the 
" duty of health," such as 

Due discrimination and self-control in 
relation to our food. 

That we abstain from whatever is found to 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



255 



injure, and restrict ourselves rigidly to that 
sort and amount of aliment, whether animal or 
vegetable, which is most conducive to our 
general vigour and enjoyment, and which best 
comports with an active, cheerful, and sound 
mind in a sound body. Plutarch says that his 
countrymen, the Boeotians, were remarkable 
for their stupidity, because they ate too much. 
They were good trencher-men, and good for 
nothing else. Let these and preceding hints 
on diet be properly heeded by the religious 
man, and his own experience will prove that 
his spiritual, as well as intellectual enjoyment 
and usefulness, are closely connected both with 
the quality and quantity of his daily food, and 
the right times for taking it. Richard Cum- 
berland says in his Memoirs, Nature has given 
me the hereditary blessing of a constitutional 
and habitual temperance, that revolts at excess 
of any sort, and never suffers appetite to load 
the frame. I am accordingly as fit to resume 
my book or my pen the instant after my meal, 
as I was in the freshest hours of the morning. 



256 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

GlYE BOTH MIND AND BODY SUFFICIENT REST, 
AND AT THE PROPER SEASON. 

Not a small proportion of that despondency 
which is so incident to the sedentary class 
comes from excessive study at unseasonable 
hours. It is one of the "diseases of litera- 
ture," to which good men are as liable as 
others. It is night study, Dr. Johnson says, 
that ruins the constitution, by keeping up a 
bewildered chaos of impressions on the brain 
during the succeeding sleep — if that can be 
called sleep, which is constantly interrupted by 
incoherent dreams, and half-waking trains of 
thought. Physiologists have proved that peri- 
odical rest is necessary to the reproduction of 
that power in the nerves by which the will is 
enabled to act on the muscles. A due propor- 
tion of repose, therefore, is essential to the 
proper manifestation of mind in the orderly 
use of the body. We have known many re- 
markable cases of nervous disorder which were 
connected with this sort of imprudence. Night 
watching, or late sitting up, was reprobated in 
a doctor's Manual for the Nervous, written two 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



257 



hundred years ago, as tending to "tire and 
waste the animal spirits, by keeping them too 
long upon duty, debilitating nature, and there- 
by shortening the period of usefulness," ac- 
cording to the maxim, 

Quod caret alterna requie, durabile non est. 
What would endure, must have alternate rest. 

A theological student, who was about aban- 
doning his studies in utter discouragement 
from declining health, was induced to forego 
his purpose until he had tried what could be 
done for him by a change of habits as to 
eating, sleeping, study, and rest. The new 
regimen proved so beneficial, that without the 
aid of drugs, by which he imagined his life 
had been sustained, he began to recover. In a 
short time his mind became cheerful, he re- 
gained his bodily vigour, and resumed his 
studies, which he afterwards prosecuted with 
equal profit and pleasure. It was the Rev. Dr. 
Miller's counsel not to study much by night. 
Begin with the dawn of day, and improve 
every moment of daylight that you can secure ; 
22* 



258 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

but be extremely cautious of night studies. I 
have known them to injure incurably the eyes 
and the general health of many unwary stu- 
dents before they apprehended the least danger. 
Study, to a late hour at night, ought never to 
be indulged at all by any one who values his 
health. Two hours sleep before midnight, are 
worth three, if not four, after it; and he who 
frequently allows himself to remain at his stu- 
dies after eleven o'clock in the evening, is 
probably laying up in store for himself bitter 
repentance. A late writer ascribes the excel- 
lent health and mental vigour of M. Guizot, 
while Minister of France under Louis Philippe, 
to his "prodigious faculty for sleep." After 
the most boisterous and tumultuous sittings at 
the Chambers, where he had been baited by 
the opposition in the most savage manner, he 
was accustomed to go home, throw himself 
upon a couch, and fall immediately into a 
profound sleep, from which he was not dis- 
turbed till midnight, when proofs of the Moni- 
teur were brought to him for inspection. It 
is well known that Henry Kirke White, Urqu- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



259 



hart, and Henry Martyn, suffered at times from 
extreme depression of spirits, caused by an 
overtaxing of their mind, which occasioned the 
premature death of two, and probably abridged 
the life of the third. " My discoveries," Henry 
Martyn says, "are all at an end, and I am 
just where I was, in perfect darkness !" — a fit- 
ting sequel to the paragraph in his diary by 
which it is preceded: "I scarcely know how 
this week has passed; I remember, however, 
that one night I did not sleep a wink. One 
discovery succeeded another so rapidly in He- 
brew, Arabic, and Greek, that I was sometimes 
almost in ecstasy." What effect could be 
linked to a cause more closely and inseparably 
than were the collapse of soul he speaks of, 
and his habitual imprudence in the violation of 
well-known physical laws] 

Many suffer great depression of spirits from 
the injurious effects of narcotics, especially in 
the form of tobacco. The name of ministers 
who use it, to the prejudice of their health, is 
legion. For this, and other reasons, some 
ecclesiastical bodies have made it a subject of 



260 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

discipline. Not long ago, a candidate for the 
ministry at the West was refused his license, 
by one Methodist Conference, on account of 
his declining to give the habit up. Another 
adopted the following resolution: " Whereas, 
the use of tobacco is a great evil, and leads to 
other evils; therefore, Resolved, that, after the 
present session, we will not receive any person 
into full connection who persists in the use of 
tobacco." Cowper greatly admired the Rev. 
Mr. Bull, of Newport-Pagnell, for his genius, 
literature, fine taste, and lovely temper — but, 
alas ! nothing is perfect, he writes, in a playful, 
but half serious letter, preserved by Haley, 
"the Bull smokes tobacco." In the famous 
" Counterblast to Tobacco" of King James the 
First, the custom of smoking is anathematized 
as "loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, 
paineful to the braine, dangerous to the lungs; 
and in the black, stinking fume thereof, near- 
est resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of 
the pit that is bottomless." In the time of 
Elizabeth, an edict was published against its 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



261 



use, for fear lest England should become like 
the barbarians from whom its use was derived. 

Anglorum corpora in barbarorum naturam degenerasse, quum 
iidem ac barbari delectentur. 

Dr. Dunglison told the writer, that of the 
many cases of functional affections of the heart 
that he had seen, particularly among young 
men, a large proportion appeared to be owing 
to an immoderate use of tobacco. The accom- 
plished author of "Letters on Clerical Habits 
and Manners," says that no class of persons are 
more apt to fall into excess in the use of 
tobacco, in every way, than students; and no 
class of students, perhaps, more remarkably 
than those who are devoted to the study of 
theology. Whether their sedentary habits, and 
especially their habits of stated composition, 
form the peculiar temptation by which so many 
of them are unhappily beguiled, I know not; 
but it has fallen to my lot to know a very 
large number of ministers, young and old, who 
by excessive smoking, chewing, or snuffing, 
have deranged the tone of their stomachs; 



262 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

have undermined their health; have seriously 
injured their voices; have had the fumes of 
tobacco so thoroughly inwrought in their per- 
sons and clothing, that it became impossible 
for many delicate people to sit near them with 
impunity. They have laid themselves, after a 
while, under so absolute a necessity of smoking 
or chewing incessantly, that they have been 
obliged to withdraw from company, or from 
the most urgent business, and even to break 
off in the midst of a meal, and retire to smoke, 
or else run the risk of a severe affection of the 
stomach. In vain do you remind such people, 
when they are young, and when their habits 
are forming, that the use of tobacco is, in most 
cases, unhealthful, and in many, extremely so; 
that if they use it at all, they are in danger 
of being betrayed into excess, in spite of every 
resolution to the contrary. They will not be- 
lieve you; they are in no danger; others may 
have insensibly fallen into excess, and become 
offensive, but they never will. Onward they 
go with inflexible self-will, as an ox goeth to 
the slaughter; resolving to follow appetite at 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



263 



all hazards, until some of them become them- 
selves fearful examples of the evils against 
which they were warned! The truth is, no 
man — especially no young man — ought ever 
to use tobacco in any shape, who can possibly 
avoid it; that is, who does not find himself 
reduced to the same necessity of taking it, as 
a medicine, that he is now and then, of taking 
calomel; in which case, instead of allowing 
himself to contract a fondness for the article, 
and living upon it daily, a wise man will take 
it, as he would a most nauseous medicine, in 
as small quantities, and as seldom as possible. 
If the most servile votary of the segar, the 
quid, and the snuff-box, could take even a 
cursory glance at the ruined health, the trem- 
bling nerves, the impaired mental faculties, 
the miserable tippling habits, the disgraceful 
slavery, and the revolting fume, to which they 
have insensibly conducted many an unsuspect- 
ing devotee, he would fly with horror before 
even the possible approaches of danger. 

But our venerable monitor reprobates the 
practice as not less a trespass against our 



264 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



neighbour than injurious to ourselves. I have 
known, he says, some persons who in conse- 
quence of their habitually chewing tobacco, or 
some other substance, or smoking, were under 
a necessity so constant and pressing of discharg- 
ing saliva from their mouths, that they were 
really a trouble to themselves, as well as to 
everybody else. I have certainly known, at 
least, one tobacco-chewing clergyman, of whom 
a respectable professor of religion declared that 
he would most cheerfully pay his board for a 
week or more at a tavern, or at any other 
place, rather than endure his company at a 
single meal, or for one evening in his own 
dwelling. How melancholy, that a minister 
of religion, instead of being a pattern of neat- 
ness and purity, and possessing such manners 
as to render his company attractive to all 
classes of people, should allow himself, by his 
personal habits, to drive all cleanly and deli- 
cate persons from his presence! But the in- 
dulgence ceases to be a mere offence against 
taste, when we contemplate its havoc of life. 
According to the estimate of discerning physi- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 265 

cians, not less than twenty thousand die in 
the United States every year from the use of 
tobacco. In Germany, where this pernicious 
habit is far more common, it is said that of all 
the deaths between the ages of eighteen and 
thirty-five, one-half originate in the waste 
of constitution by smoking. But in unnum- 
bered cases where it does not destroy life, it 
exhausts and deranges the nervous powers, and 
produces some of the most distressing and un- 
manageable ailments. M. Bouisson, a French 
writer, has lately published some startling facts 
upon the danger of smoking. He states that 
cancer in the mouth has grown so frequent 
from the use of tobacco, that it now forms 
one of the most dreaded diseases in the hospi- 
tals. From 1845 to 1859 he has himself per- 
formed sixty-eight operations for cancers in 
the lips in the hospital St. Eloi. The use of 
tobacco rarely produces lip cancer in youth. 
Almost all of Bouisson's patients had passed 
the age of forty. The disease is also more 
frequent with individuals of the humbler class, 
who smoke short pipes, and tobacco of inferior 
23 



266 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

quality, while with the orientals, who are care- 
ful to preserve the coolness of the mouth-piece 
by the transmission of the smoke through 
water, it is unknown; showing that it is gene- 
rated more by the constant application of heat 
to the lips, than by the inhaling of nicotine. 
It is a common cause of disease in the stomach, 
and especially those forms that go under the 
name of dyspepsia, with all their kindred train 
of evils. It also exerts a disastrous influence 
upon the mind, and frequently produces an 
enfeebling of the memory, a confusion of ideas, 
irritability of temper, want of energy, unsteadi- 
ness of purpose, melancholy, and sometimes 
insanity. 

In the September number of the London 
Pharmaceutic Journal, for 1860, it is stated that 
on dividing the pupils of the Polytechnic School 
at Paris into smokers and non-smokers, it is 
shown that the smokers have proved them- 
selves, in the various competitive examinations, 
far inferior to the others. Not only in the 
examinations on entering the school, are the 
smokers in a lower rank, but in the various 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



267 



ordeals they have to pass through in a year, the 
average rank of the smokers has constantly 
fallen, and not inconsiderably, "when the men 
who did not smoke, enjoyed a cerebral atmos- 
phere of the clearest kind." 

At the meeting of a Methodist Conference 
in May, 1860, the Rev. G. Moody stated that 
there were no less than thirty-five persons in 
the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, whose unfortunate 
condition had been induced by the use of 
tobacco. No one spoke in defence of the Vir- 
ginia product after this. 

These are the ultimate effects of the use of 
tobacco; and though one may not perceive 
them in his own case, we are assured that the 
tendency of the drug is always towards dis- 
ease. 

Much that is said of the evils of tobacco 
may be repeated of alcoholic drinks, and of 
stimulating or stupefying drugs. The prac- 
tice of many, in their dejection from physical 
and other causes, to resort to opiates for relief, 
is as noxious to the health as it is immoral. 
Both Doctors Good and Cullen reject them as 



268 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



pernicious in cases of despondency. They seem 
to heighten the pressure of our malady only to 
let it hang upon us afterwards more heavily. 
The way in which such agents operate injuri- 
ously, is " by disturbing the chemistry of life 
to such a degree that the nerve-matter no 
longer duly subserves its purpose as a medium 
through which the soul exercises volition, and 
perceives sensation." Dr. Moore says that nar- 
cotic substances seem to operate on the body 
by interfering with the affinity existing be- 
tween the blood and the air, allowing the accu- 
mulation of carbon, or other noxious agents, in 
the circulating fluid, and thus arresting the 
action of the nervous system. On this prin- 
ciple, every kind of intoxication disturbs the 
voluntary operation of the mind by poisoning 
the brain, and thence impending the influence 
of the will upon the circulation, by preventing 
its control over the nerves of sense and motion. 
Another indispensable auxiliary to health, is 
Exercise in pure air. 

The tendency of the depressing passions is 
to render us inert, taciturn, averse to society, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



269 



and misanthropic. The languor and restless- 
ness that usually attend this disordered state, 
make us unwilling to leave our retirement for 
the open air, or for the bodily efforts which 
our health calls for. 

Ignavia corpus hebetat, labor firmat. 

Indolence makes the body feeble, labour gives it strength. 

It is not to be expected that in so limited 
a treatise as this, we should give a tithe of 
the excellent instructions or counsels which 
may be quoted to any extent from standard 
authors, in regard to the best means of pre- 
serving health, or for restoring it when im- 
paired; what they say of diet, drinks, drugs, 
sleep, employment, bathing, riding, gymnastic 
exercises, walking, generous living, abstinence, 
&c. We merely allude to so copious a sub- 
ject in this general way, to direct the reader's 
attention to what the wisest of them have 
written, rather than to any instructions of our 
own. But it ought to be specially noticed by 
the seeker after health, that while the disagree- 
ment of writers on the broad subject of regi- 
23* 



270 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

men is notorious, they are in perfect harmony 
about the utility of exercise properly taken, 
and of wholesome air. One of their most dis- 
tinguished authors says, if we would preserve 
our nerves in a state to favour mental exercise, 
we must insure our access to pure air. 

Temperie cceli, corpusque, aninmsque juvantur. 
Heaven's genial air, both mind and body feel. 

It is not enough to be guided by our senses 
in this matter; for unless we are supplied with 
fresh air at the rate of at least twenty cubic 
inches for every breath while tranquil, and 
twenty-five while in action, we shall be in 
danger. There is a great probability that the 
temper of an assembly is often vastly influenced 
by the state of the air which it breathes, 
and to talk of a moral atmosphere is not alto- 
gether a figure of speech. It is certain, that a 
crowded audience is usually most excitable at 
the commencement of a service, and the most 
attentive towards its close; and it not unfre- 
quently happens, "that at the end of a long 
sermon the flushed faces and hazy eyes of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



271 



the congregation indicate that bad blood is 
adding its influence to aggravate the mental 
confusion produced by a disorderly discourse." 
Dr. Hall says, that "while exercise tends to 
abate disease under all circumstances, physi- 
cians recommend it to be taken in open air, in 
order to produce more immediate effects. The 
reason is, because a breath of air taken into the 
lungs, perfectly light and pure, comes out the 
next moment so laden with the impurity which 
it took from the blood, that it is a perfect 
stench, and would destroy life if breathed 
again; but coming from the body warm and 
rarefied, it ascends to regions where there is 
no animal life for it to destroy, to return to the 
lower world no more until it has been restored 
to its former purity." No persons better un- 
derstand the value of these two helpers to a 
vigorous use of both the mental and bodily 
faculties, than some of our most successful 
scholars. In "Peter's Letters to his Kins- 
folk," he gives us an amusing account of the 
boyish gymnastics of certain illustrious Scotch- 
men in the early part of the present century, 



272 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

who were wont to recruit their minds, after 
severe study, by relaxing in the athletic sports 
of youth, according to the advice of Horace to 
his friend Virgil, 

Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem. 
Dulce est desipere in loco. 

Mix a short folly with thy laboured schemes, 
'Tis joyous folly that unbends the mind. — Francis. 

The men that "Peter" speaks of, were most 
of them already beyond the meridian of life. 
" I was not a little astonished," he says, " when 
somebody proposed a trial of strength in leap- 
ing. Nor was my astonishment at all dimi- 
nished when Mr. Playfair began to throw off 
his coat and waistcoat, and to prepare himself 
for taking his part in the contest; and, indeed, 
the whole party did the same, except Jeffrey 
alone, who was dressed in a short green jacket, 
with scarcely any skirts, and therefore seemed 
to consider himself as already sufficiently 'ac- 
cinctus ludo.' I used to be a good leaper in 
my day, but I cut a very poor figure among 
these sinewy Caledonians. With the excep- 
tion of Leslie, they all jumped wonderfully; 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



273 



and Jeffrey was quite miraculous, considering 
his brevity of stride. But the greatest wonder 
of the whole was Mr. Playfair. He also is a 
short man, and cannot be less than seventy, 
yet he took his stand with the assurance of an 
athletic, and positively beat every one of us. 
I was quite thunderstruck, never having heard 
the least hint of his being so great a geome- 
trician in this sense of the word." We will 
only add 'to these suggestions with regard to 
exercise of mind and body, the counsel of one 
restored from prolonged melancholy, and who 
recites the teachings of his own experience. 
" Seek some suitable employment for exercise, 
and at the same time for diverting your 
thoughts from your trouble. Neglect, refuse, 
or reject this, and you have no ground of 
hope. If you are not confined to your bed, 
or if you can barely rise off it and walk, and 
this only at times, you should think of some 
useful, proper, and, if possible, profitable em- 
ployment, at which you might do at least a 
little. In vain will you think and say, that 
you are too weak; all experience loudly ex- 



274 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

claims — take exercise! take exercise! — if you 
can but walk or creep a little; and this espe- 
cially to patients of your order. It is true 
that you do at times become very weak, but 
if you have no local disorder, or whether or 
not your weakness is of a peculiar kind; it 
will both come on and go otf quicker than 
the weakness of patients labouring under other 
diseases." 

"While arranging our thoughts on the sub- 
ject of this volume, we met with the following 
remarks of the Rev. Dr. N. L. Rice. They 
contain so many excellent counsels, reaffirming 
our own, that we are constrained to transfer 
them to our pages without change or abridg- 
ment. He is writing with special reference to 
his clerical brethren in their state of mental 
depression; but his suggestions are scarcely 
less adapted to the case of desponding Chris- 
tians in general. 

"There are some ministers and Christians 
who can say, as Dr. Daniel Baker said, 'I am 
always happy;' but there are many others who 
have seasons of depression of shorter or longer 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



275 



continuance, and of greater or less intensity. 
They are sometimes caused by some slight 
bodily indisposition, affecting the nervous sys- 
tem; sometimes by nervous exhaustion from 
loss of sleep, or too long continued mental 
exertion; sometimes by disappointed hopes; 
and often by erroneous views as to prospects 
of usefulness, &c. They seem to be of the 
nature of melancholy, only they do not so 
generally create doubts of one's piety; and the 
causes being slight or transient, the mind soon 
recovers its cheerfulness. But whatever cause 
or causes produce these depressions, they are 
not only very distressing, but for the time 
being they unfit the mind for the discharge of 
any duty. We cannot read, for the mind 
takes no interest in any book, and wanders 
from what we are reading to its own gloomy 
imaginings. We cannot prepare a sermon, 
for the mind will not take hold of any subject. 
We feel, as we wander from text to text, that 
there is not a text in the Bible on which we 
could preach. We lose hours in the vain effort 
to choose a text, and then utterly fail to satisfy 



276 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ourselves. We feel disinclined to visit; we do 
not wish to converse with any one, unless we 
can talk gloomily to some bosom friend. The 
pastor feels as if his usefulness were at an end 
in his present field, and half resolves to resign 
his pastoral charge. To those who are trou- 
bled with such depressions as we have often 
been, we venture a few suggestions: 

1. If it can be avoided, it is better not to 
attempt any mental labour whilst the depres- 
sion continues. Whatever may be the cause, 
the fact is, the nervous system is out of tune. 
There is exhaustion and an irritable condition; 
and any attempt to force the mind to work 
will increase the difficulty; and the work, 
whilst doubly difficult, will not be as well done. 
Walk or ride out; breathe the fresh air, and 
converse with Nature. Vigorous muscular 
exercise, especially if at the same time the 
mind is amused, will often allay nervous irri- 
tation and depression. Or if there is general 
prostration of the system, and a feeling of 
weariness, take half an hour's sleep; and you 
will be surprised at the virtue that is in 'tired 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



277 



nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." Then a 
cup of good coffee will often make one feel like 
a new man. Often, when worn out with con- 
tinuous preaching, we have found surprising 
relief from this source ; all might not find the 
same benefit from it. 

2. If it is absolutely necessary to preach 
under such depressions, two suggestions will be 
found important, viz. 1. Select a subject which 
demands, at the outset, intellectual effort. De- 
pressions, such as we are considering, interfere 
far more with the emotions than with the in- 
tellectual perceptions; and if the intellect can 
get fairly to work in the effort to prove some 
proposition, or to explain some point of doc- 
trine or duty, the emotions will gradually rise 
in the progress of the discussion, and the pain- 
ful depression will entirely disappear. 2. Com- 
mence the discourse with the explanation of a 
word, or the statement of a fact or principle, 
and let the mind pass without special effort 
from thought to thought, and it will, in a few 
minutes, work both vigorously and pleasantly. 
To select a subject which, from the beginning, 
24 



278 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

appeals to the emotions, or is hortatory, or to 
commence at a point above one's own state of 
feeling, are both unsafe; for in either case the 
mind, instead of rising, sinks into deeper de- 
pression, and the preacher retires from the 
pulpit with the distressing feeling that he has 
made a failure. 

3. It is unsafe to come to any new con- 
clusions, or materially to change one's plans, 
whilst labouring under such depressions. At 
such times nothing appears in its true light. 
We are likely to err in regard to the state of 
feeling in our congregations; and difficulties 
which at other times would produce no dis- 
couragement, appear insurmountable. In our 
own experience, once and again, an hour's 
sleep, a ride to the country, or a good cup 
of coffee, has removed mountains of difficulty, 
and driven away dark clouds that seemed to 
threaten ruin to all our plans of usefulness. 
The forming of important plans, which are to 
give direction to our labours for life, or at 
least for years, requires a clear intellect, and a 
manly vigour. It is often difficult, though it 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



279 



is most important, to avoid talking and acting 
unwisely in these fits of despondency. 

4. There is little use in attempting to 
reason persons out of these gloomy moods. 
The effort to reason away a headache would 
be about as successful. The trouble is physi- 
cal; the body is affecting the animal spirits, 
and thus obscuring the views, and paralyzing 
the energies of the mind. It is generally even 
more unwise to ridicule the unreasonable con- 
ceits of persons who are low-spirited. Despon- 
dency is something strangely contradictory. It 
is very distressing; yet the mind nurses it 
as though it were a most delicious feeling. 
Hidicule appears unfeeling and cruel, and only 
fixes the mind more firmly in its gloomy state. 
If it can be diverted to some agreeable subject 
the advantage will be very great; and a hearty 
laugh sometimes drives away all the demons 
of melancholy. 

Some years ago, a minister from Virginia 
was lying sick at our house in Cincinnati. 
He had nearly recovered; but, as it often 
happens, he had become very desponding, and 



280 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

seriously concluded that he should not live to 
reach home. Just while he was talking thus 
gloomily, our family physician came in. Dis- 
covering the desponding state of the invalid, 
he gradually turned the conversation into a 
more pleasant channel; and in half an hour he 
had the sick preacher laughing heartily. When 
the doctor left, he dressed himself, and walked 
about the house; and on the next day went on 
his journey. 

Others, as well as ministers of the gospel, are 
afflicted with what is jestingly called the blues; 
and the suggestions already made may he of 
some advantage to them. A little timely rest 
and diversion will throw sunshine over the 
affairs of a man, which in hours of gloom seem 
desperate ; and the Christian who is just ready 
to give up his class in the Sabbath-school, will 
resume his labours with cheerfulness." 

In the fourth chapter of Dr. Alexander's 
"Thoughts on Religious Experience," will be 
found, among many wise counsels to persons 
subject to spiritual depression, some very 
striking examples, interspersed with judicious 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



281 



remarks. The importance of special watchful- 
ness and prayer against the invasion of melan- 
choly in the decline of life, especially when 
the tendency is constitutional, may be inferred 
from the cases of two persons who were over- 
whelmed with this malady at last, though as 
far from it in early life as any that the writer 
ever knew. 

The first was a man of extraordinary talents 
and eloquence ; bold and decisive in his temper, 
and fond of company and good cheer. "When 
about fifty-five or six years of age, without any 
external cause to produce the effect, his spirits 
began to sink, and feelings of melancholy to 
seize upon him. He avoided company. I had 
frequent occasion to see him, and sometimes 
he could be engaged in conversation, when he 
would speak as judiciously as before; but he 
soon reverted to his dark melancholy mood. 
On one occasion he mentioned his case to me, 
and observed with emphasis, that he had no 
power whatever to resist the disease, and, said 
he, with despair in his countenance, "I shall 
soon be utterly overwhelmed." And so it 
24* 



282 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

turned out; for the disease advanced, until it 
ended in the worst form of mania, and soon 
terminated his life. The other was the case of 
a gentleman who had held office in the Ameri- 
can army in the Revolutionary war. About 
the same age, or a little later, he lost his 
cheerfulness, which had never been interrupted 
before, and by degrees sunk into a most deplo- 
rable state of melancholy, which, as in the 
former case, soon ended in death. In this case, 
the first thing which I noticed was a morbid 
sensibility of the moral sense, which filled him 
with remorse, for acts which had little or no 
moral turpitude attached to them. Let the 
depressed and desponding 

Look habitually to Christ. 

A counsel, the most important, as it is the 
most comprehensive of all that have been 
offered. Look to Him continually for his 
ascension gift, the Comforter, to purify from 
sin, to help in overcoming the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. Without me ye can do nothing, 
says the Saviour; and through Christ strength- 
ening me, says his great apostle, I can do all 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



283 



things. Christ is the only rest of our souls. 
In anything, for any end or purpose, to take up 
short of Him, is to lose it. It is not enough 
that we be prisoners of hope, but we must turn 
to our stronghold; not enough that we labour 
and are heavy laden, but we must come to him. 
It will not suffice, that we are weak, and know 
that we are weak, but we must take hold of the 
strength of God. 

This is Dr. Owen's counsel to those who cry 
for relief out of the depths, referred to in the 
one hundred and thirtieth Psalm. Under the 
teachings of his own experience, Mr. Eogers 
repeats the same: "Look forward to Jesus 
Christ, when you find things perplexed and 
troubled in your own souls; look to Him, 
and in the direct acts of faith, we have nobler 
objects to converse withal than when we look 
and pore upon our guilty selves. When we 
look into our troubled hearts, we can see 
nothing beside confusion and disorder there; 
but we may at the same time discern an 
all-sufficient fulness in God and Christ to 
relieve our wants. It is a long and tedious 



284 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

work to consider the several steps by which 
we are to proceed in such a case, whether we 
have believed or not; our duty is at this very 
instant to believe — i. e., under a penitent sense 
of what we have done amiss, to look unto 
Christ for help. We must carefully distin- 
guish between justification and sanctification ; 
between those habits and those holy actions 
that are the effects of faith, and faith itself. 
Our sanctification is full of imperfection; but 
that righteousness of Christ, wherein alone we 
are to trust for acceptance with God, is com- 
plete and perfect. Dr. Church, President of 
the Medical Society of Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- 
nia, mentions numerous facts to illustrate the 
efficacy of faith in Christ, in the prevention 
and cure of diseases of body as well as mind. 
As health is the result of nicely-balanced appe- 
tites and passions, so of course anything that 
exerts a regulating or controlling influence 
over these, in such a manner as to attune them 
into harmony, will essentially aid us in fore- 
stalling diseases, as well as in curing them. 
Such a power as is here ascribed to evan- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



285 



gelical faith, would seem to be implied in the 
language of Dr. Bell, who says that "so inti- 
mate is the connection between physical com- 
fort and moral well-being, that the one cannot 
be seriously affected without the other suffer- 
ing." Mr. Shrubsole tells us in his Christian 
Memoirs, that he was once reduced so low that 
his case was apparently hopeless. For hours 
he was lying in convulsions, and during this 
time he was in a state of great spiritual dark- 
ness and distress of mind. But so soon as the 
light of Divine truth broke in upon him, and 
he experienced the support of true faith, his 
convulsions left him, and he rapidly recovered. 
Dr. Church mentions the case of several sick 
persons of advanced age, who would probably 
have died under the power of these attacks, 
but for the perfect composure of mind and 
freedom from fear that were ministered by 
their faith. In view of the many facts con- 
cerning the remedial influence of faith, alle- 
ged by other physicians of equal eminence, 
Dr. Ashbel Green takes occasion to combat 
what he calls a " serious evil." He refers to 



286 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the "absurd, cruel, and wicked opinion," enter- 
tained by many physicians, and embraced by 
many of their patients, that a clergyman must 
be kept out of a sick room— at least till the 
person is past recovery; an opinion which he 
avers was proved fallacious by his own experi- 
ence in the pastoral charge of one of the largest 
congregations in the United States for more 
than the fourth part of a century, during which 
time he never knew an instance in which his 
ministerial visitations of the sick were appre- 
hended, so far as he knew, to be injurious. 
What excuse then can be given, he asks, for 
depriving the sick of religious aid, when facts 
innumerable demonstrate that it may be afford- 
ed, not merely without harm, but often with 
evident advantage in helping the physician. 
The same sentiments on this important subject 
were entertained by his friend, Dr. Rush, who 
enumerates among the duties of a physician, 
"piety towards God, a respect for religion, and 
regular attendance on public worship." With- 
out such moral endowments, he will meet 
with many cases of disease which he wants 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



287 



the requisite qualifications to treat. The suf- 
ferers need a medical counsellor who can point 
them to the balm of Gilead, and the Physician 
there. They must be directed beyond the 
remedy of secondary or merely physical causes, 
to Him who can make them efficacious. And 
to mention all the cures that have been per- 
formed by faith and hope, he says, "would 
require many pages." But while the despond- 
ing look to Christ, and pray for themselves, 
let them seek an interest in the prayers of 
others. It is believed that the restoration of 
the Rev. Mr. Rogers, several times referred to in 
the preceding pages, was in answer to the spe- 
cial prayers of his pious friends and brethren 
in the ministry, many of whom were most 
earnest and importunate in their intercessions, 
till at length his mind was completely relieved. 
He has left a monument of this deliverance 
from his dreadful thraldom, in a book well 
worthy of the perusal of those who suffer under 
spiritual distress from physical or any other 
causes. But the prevailing temptation of 
Christians of this temperament, as we have 



288 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

shown in another place, is to look to them- 
selves, to watch their own fluctuating frames, 
canvass their motives and conduct, as if they 
expected to find the living among the dead. 
As if the Israelite in the wilderness, bitten of 
the fiery serpent, had depended for his reco- 
very upon his former temperance, or the 
strength of his constitution, and not upon 
looking to the brazen image. Such reviews 
of the past and searchings of heart, are not 
only proper, but they are exceedingly impor- 
tant in many respects, but not for spiritual 
comfort in distress, nor for aid to arrive at 
assurance. To look back, as one observes, is 
more than we can sustain without going back. 
Indeed the better the Christian, the more 
spiritually minded and holy, the more does he 
usually discover to cause sorrow, and the keen- 
est self-reproach, whenever he takes a retros- 
pect of his past life and experience. For many 
years, we are told, that even Baxter was in 
great perplexity about himself, for reasons 
which have been a common occasion of doubt- 
ing among serious inquirers in every, age of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 289 

the church: it was because he could not trace 
so distinctly the workings of the Spirit on his 
heart, as they were described in some practical 
writers, to whom he was directed for instruc- 
tion, and he could not ascertain the time of his 
conversion. Because he felt great hardness of 
heart; supposed himself to be religious from 
early education rather than conviction of the 
Spirit; to be influenced more by fear than by 
love; and because his grief and humiliation 
on account of sin were not greater. But he 
was afterwards satisfied that these were not 
sufficient nor scriptural grounds for doubting 
his personal interest in the salvation of Christ. 
Upon which, Orme, his accomplished biogra- 
pher, remarks, that persons who are agitated 
with perplexities similar to those of Baxter, 
are frequently directed to means little calcu- 
lated to afford relief. It is very questionable 
whether any individual will ever obtain com- 
fort by making himself, or the evidences of 
personal religion, the object of chief attention. 
All hope to the guilty creature is exterior to 
himself. In the human character, even under 
25 



290 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Christian influence, sufficient reason for con- 
demnation, and therefore for fear, will always 
be found. It is not thinking of the disease, 
nor of the mode in which the remedy operates, 
nor of the description given of these things 
by others, but using the remedy itself that will 
effect the cure. The gospel is the heavenly 
appointed balsam for all the wounds of sin, 
and Jesus is the great Physician; it is to him, 
and to his testimony, therefore, as the revela- 
tion of pardon and healing, that the soul must 
be directed in all the stages of its spiritual 
career. When the glory of his character and 
work is seen, darkness of mind will be dissi- 
pated, the power of sin will be broken, genuine 
contrition will be felt, and joy and hope will 
fill the mind. It is from the Saviour and his 
sacrifice that all proper excitement in religion 
must proceed; and the attempt to produce that 
excitement by the workings of the mind on 
itself, must inevitably fail. Self-examina.tion 
to discover the power of truth and the progress 
of principle in us, is highly important; but 
when employed with a view to obtain comfort 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



291 



under a sense of guilt, it never can succeed. 
Nothing but renewed application to the cross 
can produce the latter effect. 

These sentiments are so important that they 
cannot be repeated too often, nor be too deeply 
impressed upon all, and especially upon every 
inquirer after an assurance of hope. They 
describe the only way by which the perplexed 
believer, even when released from the embar- 
rassment of physical influences, can obtain a 
solid and permanent peace. It is by looking 
to Christ, not as holy in ourselves, but in order 
to be made holy; not as the whole, whose dis- 
tempers have been cured already, but as the 
sick, who must be cured by him alone, or 
perish. We must go to him, feeling that we 
owe him ten thousand times more than we can 
pay; but that all he requires of us is to accept 
a discharge, and be happy in the enjoyment of 
this unmerited grace. In other words, we are 
only to exalt our glorious Redeemer to his 
true position as both the Author and Finisher 
of our faith, the alpha and omega in our sal- 
vation, and our peace is secured. Those very 



292 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

views of ourselves, our self-reproach and feel- 
ing of ill-desert, which have caused so much 
disquiet, then become the evidences of that 
spiritual change which is the beginning of 
everlasting life. It is as easy for God to for- 
give a thousand sins as one sin. If we be 
never so unworthy and so vile, yet mercy seeks 
no other qualification of its object but that it 
is necessitous, and liable to ruin; and it is a 
good way to fly to his mere grace and mercy, 
for we have undone ourselves. Poring upon 
ourselves does but increase our load. "We are 
apt to say in our distress, "Were we so and 
so mortified to the world — were our hearts so 
purified and cleansed, then we might approach 
him with some boldness, who is altogether 
holy." This is true, but yet we must first ask 
of him to make us such, in whom he may 
delight. And as we sorrowfully cast our eyes 
upon our wounds and our miseries, let us look 
at the same time to that Physician who has 
provided a remedy for us by Christ, and who 
can heal all our backslidings, and teach us to 
apply that remedy. If we are the worst and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



293 



most sinful creatures upon earth, yet is a 
Saviour tendered to our acceptance and our 
choice; and if we will receive him, all our 
transgressions, how heinous soever, will be 
blotted out. We repeat, then, the monition, 
in the midst of distracting cares and tempta- 
tions, which so much hinder the exercise of 
this faith, let us not forget the promised help 
of the Holy Spirit. Let us watch against the 
common sin of the desponding, who undervalue 
his aid, and practically question its reality, 
when we are taught, not only that he helpeth 
our infirmities, but that he maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 

To know that we are Christians does not 
imply that we are free from sin, but that we 
are united to Christ. Our peace, and joy, and 
hope, the fruits of this union, need not be 
destroyed by our imperfections, however great, 
while we cling to Him as our righteousness. 
"If we see ourselves bad enough for Christ," 
Thomas Adam says, "he sees us good enough." 
His people are safe, notwithstanding their 
doubts and fears, not because of any inherent 
25* 



294 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



power in them to hold on to the end, but be- 
cause of the grace which reigns in their calling 
and redemption, in view of which he has said, 
he will never leave them nor forsake them. 

The soul on His bosom that leans for repose, 
Is safe from the assaults of its bitterest foes; 
That soul, tho' all hell should its vengeance awake, 
He'll never, no never, no never forsake! 

It is certainly among the deep mysteries of 
Providence, that some of the most eminent 
saints who have ever lived, should have been 
afflicted with despondency and gloom ; and yet, 
as pious Rutherford remarks, "as nights and 
shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight 
and dews better than a continued sun, so is 
Christ's absence of special use, and it hath 
some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap 
to humility, and furnisheth a fair field for 
faith." But is there no difficulty, it may be 
asked, connected with the abandonment of a 
pious man to such a state of mental darkness 
and suffering, especially when protracted to the 
hour of death] No greater difficulty, we con- 
ceive, when viewed as the result of physical 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



295 



disease, than in a good man's being suffered 
to linger under a torturing complaint, or to 
be laid aside by paralysis, or to be the victim 
of brutal violence, of persecution, or of fatal 
accident. We know of no promise that insures 
a truly religious man against such a trial, 
although we believe the physical influence of 
true religion to be the very best preservative 
against those exciting causes which are likely 
to develope a predisposition to mental disease. 
The history of Job is written to caution us 
against falling into the error of his friends in 
"so judging by feeble sense." It is true that 
he emerged from his complicated and unparal- 
leled afflictions; but in the cases of diseases 
incurable, except by miracle, what reason is 
there to expect an extraordinary interposition 
of Divine power, in anticipation of the blessed 
cure which death will effect when the spirit 
"bursts its chains with sweet surprise]" If 
Cowper was permitted to expire in apparent 
mental darkness, let it not be regarded as 
either militating against the Divine goodness, 
nor as indicating the Divine displeasure against 



296 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the sufferer, should any one under similar cir- 
cumstances be allowed to close his days under 
the pressure of distemper, and to give no sign 
in death. 

It has been suggested, by way of explana- 
tion, that these sufferings of good men are 
designed to enhance the joys of heaven by 
contrast; that these light afflictions, which are 
but for a moment, will tend to work for us a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 
In many cases, moreover, they are made instru- 
mental in furnishing religious teachers with a 
sort of knowledge that conduces greatly to 
their usefulness, and which can be acquired 
only by experience. The apostle represents 
our High Priest as one who could be touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities, because he was 
in all points tempted as we are. Such, accord- 
ing to the Rev. Dr. Hall, was the discipline 
which gave so much "sympathy, tenderness, 
and heart-reaching power to the discourses, 
conversation, and whole intercourse" of the 
late Dr. J. W. Alexander. To qualify him for 
this service, "the wise and gracious foresight 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 297 

of Almighty God saw it necessary to lead his 
disciple, from his earliest Christian walk, in 
the path of some of the most poignant and 
overwhelming distresses that can oppress the 
human soul. Ascribe it to what immediate 
cause we may — to delicate or disordered nerves, 
to morbid sensibilities, whether physical or 
moral; to excessive intellectual excitement; to 
preternatural susceptibility to the extremes of 
enjoyment and suffer in g, we know from the 
result that this part of experience — familiar to 
him in a greater or less measure, from his 
youth to his last days — was the means sancti- 
fied to the production and maintenance of that 
depth, fulness, and richness of his spiritual 
traits, which laid the foundation of, and gave 
the predominant characteristics and direction 
to, his piety and influence. It has been said 
that God can bring affliction to try and mani- 
fest the graces of his people; as the stars, that 
are a chief part of the glory of the world, are 
then most illustrious and visible when the day 
is gone; and then he makes the sun to rise 
again, that displays new objects to us. The 



298 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

rods of God are many times very sharp, but 
at last we shall find that they were "dipped in 
honey, and managed with love." The conduct 
of Providence is always wise and good, but 
very often mysterious and unfathomable; and 
in nothing more so, than in his bringing 
'abundance of his servants to heaven by the 
very gates of hell; and in suffering Satan to 
buffet and perplex them, that they may 
triumph over him in the latter end. He 
makes them to be in great perplexities, that 
the sweet wonders of his deliverance may the 
more appear. We went through fire and through 
water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy 
place. 9 God's people should be well satisfied, 
Mr. Rogers says, that He carries them to 
heaven in the way He thinks most proper. It 
were indeed a thing very desirable to be at 
ease, to travel with light about us ; but if we 
must go through darkness, and danger, and 
calamity to heaven, let us be satisfied that his 
will is done, though we go weeping and groan- 
ing along thither. "When his candle shines 
upon our tabernacle, we are well enough 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



299 



pleased; but when he begins to correct and 
chasten us for a season, we murmur, and think 
he is a hard master. But out of the ruins of 
the flesh, God raises the glorious structure of 
the new creature, and from the destruction of 
our # earthly comforts he causes heavenly joys to 
spring. Let us not find fault with God's pro- 
vidence, for it will turn our water into wine, 
our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys, 
and, as at the marriage of Cana, we shall have 
the best at last. Two sorts of people, Dr. 
Watts observes, will be disappointed when 
they get to heaven — the melancholy Christian, 
to find himself there, and the censorious Chris- 
tian, to find others there. But what can be 
deep or mysterious in Providence, or hard for 
us to believe, when we have once received that 
amazing doctrine of grace, the great central 
truth of revelation, that God so loved the world 
as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. To many it is a subject of dis- 
tressing perplexity, that persons of unques- 
tioned piety sometimes continue to manifest 



300 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

great imperfections to the very end of their 
life. Even at the near approach of their tran- 
sition from the earthly state to a heavenly, 
their sanctification seems to be immature. 
The mind of Dr. Guthrie appears to have been 
strongly impressed by this enigma in Christian 
experience, of which he could offer no other 
solution than that a change must take place 
at the moment of death, second only to that 
at the moment of conversion. " There is much 
sin to be cast off," he says, "like a slough, 
with this mortal flesh. Saw we the spirit at 
its departure, as Elisha saw his ascending 
master, we might see a mantle of imperfection 
and infirmity dropped from the chariot that 
bears it in triumph to the skies. I have 
thought that there must be a mysterious work 
done by the Spirit of God in the very hour of 
death, to form the glorious crown and cope- 
stone of all His other labours; and that like 
the wondrous but lovely plant which blows at 
midnight, grace comes out in its perfect beauty 
amid the darkness of the dying hour. How 
that is done, I do not know. It takes one 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



301 



whole summer to ripen the fields of corn, and 
five hundred years to bring the oak to its full 
maturity. But He, at whose almighty word 
this earth sprung at once into perfect being, 
loaded with orchards, and golden harvests, and 
clustering vines, and stately palms, and giant 
cedars — man in ripened manhood, and woman 
in her full blown charms, is able in the twink- 
ling of an eye, ere our fingers have closed the 
filmy orbs, or we have stooped to print our 
last fond kiss on the marble brow, to crown 
the work his grace began. With Him, one day 
is as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
as one day. He shall perfect that which con- 
cerneth you. He shall briny forth the headstone 
thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto 
it. Now, therefore, unto Him that is able to keep 
you from falling, and to present you faultless 
before the presence of his glory, with exceeding 
joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and 
ever. Amen" 



26 



INDEX. 



A. 

PAGE. 

Abercrombie on matter and mind • . .27 
On insanity caused by religion . . . .131 
Cases of dreaming mentioned by him . . .175 
Alexander, Dr. Archibald, his interest in the subject 

treated in this work, and counsel . . .20 

Affected by the east wind 96 

His lamented death . . . . . .20 

Extract from his work on Religious Experience 

concerning young preachers . . .112 
His opinion on insanity, as said to be caused by 

religion ....... 127 

His counsel, not to reason with a man against his 

views when they arise from melancholy . 202 
His account of Rev. Dr. Hall .... 99 

Counsels given in the fourth chapter of his work 

on Religious Experience .... 280 

Two cases of melancholy mentioned by him . 281 
His opinion of Boston's " Crook in the Lot" . 117 
Alexander, Dr. James W., his interest in the subject 

of this work ...... 20 

His counsel to watch and promote bodily health 253 
His poignant mental distress .... 297 

Appetite, how far lawful to indulge it 236 
Aretseus ........ 56 

Attention directed to a disordered part, increases the 

disease . ...... 237 

Aristotle's remark on the great men of his times . 51 
Antiochus, how affected by the passion of love . 58 



304 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Arminius, his view of the sin against the Holy Grhost 164 

Armstrong quoted 197 

Afflictions of the soul, sometimes retributive . . 201 

intended to try the graces of Christians 297 
Animal food sometimes predisposes to inflammatory 
diseases — opinions of Drs. Rush, Paris, McNish, 

Arbuthnot .... 231, 232, 233 

Activity in doing good, remedy for low spirits . 243 

Case of a theological student .... 247 

Case of Dr. Lobdell 248 

Air and Exercise 268 

Alcoholic drinks 230 

Anderson — Chalmer's letter to him . . . 183 

Atmosphere, "moral," not always a figure of speech 270 

Atmospherical air, and experiment of Dr. Woodhouse 78 
Authors referred to, but not quoted, who have written 

on subjects kindred to this .... 22 

Arbuthnot, Dr., on the effect of vegetable regimen 233 

Augustine, Father, concerning the unpardonable sin 163 

B. 

Baglivi on the physical influence of Lent . . 235 

Baker, Rev. Daniel 168 

His fear of having committed the unpardonable sin 168 

His account of a young man killed by shame . 70 

Always happy . . . • . . . . 274 

Bartolini, his mistake 79 

Barking exercise 73 

Baxter, Richard, troubled with doubts about his own 

salvation . . . . . . .102 

His advice to the desponding to seek medical aid 205 

To ascertain the cause of their doubts and troubles 199 

His opinion about casting out the devil by physic 140 
Brain, its size and power increased by mental ex- 



citement ....... 43 

Of Sir Astley Cooper's patient, visible . . 44 
Of Doctor Caldwell's patient .... 45 

Of Lord Byron, of Bonaparte, of Baron Cuvier, 

of an idiot 45, 46 



INDEX. 



305 



Brain and Stomach, like two friends in health, and 



enemies when diseased ..... 49 

Brainerd, David, subject to low spirits . . . 103 
Beef, its effect on the blood — case of the Hon. C. A. 

Murray 233 

Believers troubled, Baxter's advice to 199 

Brigham, Dr., his loss of appetite caused by a letter 50 

Bile, black, or melancholy ..... 56 

Body, inexplicable structure .... 26 

We know only a few facts concerning it . .27 

Body of the spiritual man should be kept under . 236 

Bodily exercise in revivals, involuntary . . 73 

Case at Cane Ridge ..... 76 

Cases in Ireland mentioned by Dr. McNaughton 77 
Book, its enlargement suggested by the friends of the 

author ....... 20 

Not written for medical men . . . .197 

Bonaparte lean in early life . . . . . . 88 

Boerhaave's experiment on epileptic patients . . 63 

Boeotians remarkable for stupidity . . . 255 
Borri Franciscus, seventeenth century, his reputation 

and success ...... 79 

Boston, Rev. Thomas, a case of spiritual depression 117 
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, his disquisitions on 

the intrinsic qualities of certain kinds of food 231 

Blues 280 



Burrows, his opinion on insanity caused by Christianity 131 



C. 

Cranioscopy . 40 

Craniology 40 

Chagrin, power of 70 

Cassius, why such men are lean . . . .87 

Why Caesar was afraid of him .... 87 
Charity, promoted by a study of our subject . . 121 
Calvinism erroneously said to be the cause of insanity 141 

This the opinion of the Romanists, of Esquirol, of 

Macaulay, and of Haley . . . 141, 142 
Case of a clergyman in New England . . . 155 
26* 



306 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Calvin's opinion of the sin against the Holy Ghost 164 

Chalmers, Dr., his opinion of this sin . . . 164 
His letter to Mr. Anderson . . . .183 

Cause of our spiritual troubles should be ascertained 199 

Caesar and the affrighted shipmaster . . . 220 
Cases of mental disorder occurring within the sphere 

of the author's pastoral labours . . .136 

Casus omissus 252 

Cheyne's, Dr., opinion on the effect of parental habits 34 

His estimate of the number of nervous disorders 209 

His opinion on Satanic agency .... 140 

on the misery caused by nervous diseases 122 
Cheyne, his opinion on the ignorance of good men of 

the things that affect their spiritual enjoyment 199 
His opinion on the prejudice of the world against 

the religious ...... 144 

Cherry Hill prisoners exempt from cholera . . 62 

Cheerful Christians, their happy influence on others 223 

Cheerfulness commended by Dr. Maynwaring . 224 

by Seneca . . . 225 

Cecil, Rev. Mr., his letter to Mrs. Hawkes . . 180 

His remark on spiritual desertion . . . 244 

on Melancthon and Luther . . 86 

The "well-known minister" referred to . . 145 

His remark to Mr. Newton concerning Cowper 110 

Clergymen in a "sine titulo" state . . . 245 

Their peculiar trials, especially in advanced age . 251 

Their condition and claims not properly regarded 251 

Not to be kept from the sick-room • . - 286 
Cheerful Christians, one of Baxter's four cardinal 

rules to seek their company . . . 223 

Cicero quoted — his remark concerning human nature 39 

Chilo said to have died of excessive joy . . 69 
Christians sometimes tempted to commit the mistake 

of the sons of Zebedee .... 187 

Their imperfection at the close of life an occasion 
of perplexity to many; explanation of Dr. Guthrie 300 
Christian experience 82 
Christianity made to suffer from the physical suffer- 
ings of its professors ..... 92 



INDEX. 



307 



PAGE. 

Christ, the desponding should look to him . . 282 

the great Physician .... 287 

Coleridge, his remark on a man's history prior to birth 35 

composed a poem in his sleep . . 172 

Connection of body and mind mysterious . . 26 
Conferences, Methodist, their resolutions concerning 

the use of tobacco 239 

Consumptive patients cheerful .... 54 

Cholera in Philadelphia ..... 61 

Consolation, one of the uses of this Treatise . . 146 

Conscience, misguided by disease .... 148 

Exemplifications ...... 149 

Comparing experiences ..... 183 

Dr. Chalmers' letter to Mr. Andrews on the practice 183 

Comfort idolized — remarks of Dr. Harris . . 185 

of William Mason . . 188 

Combe, Dr., on intemperate eating . . . 235 
On insanity imputed to religion . . .131 
Cooper, Sir Astley — his patient . . .44 

Cowper, case of hypochondriasis .... 143 

His letter to Dr. Bagot 143 

His malady nothing to do with religion . . 144 

Happiest period of his life .... 108 
His letter to Rev. J. Newton . . . .105 

Description of himself in the Castaway . . 106 
His melancholy not derived from his residence at 

Olney 108 

His own opinion of the cause of his suffering . 106 

His remark concerning the Rev. Mr. Bull . 260 



His case does not militate against the Divine 

goodness ....... 295 

Relief of his mind by translating Homer and the 



works of Madam Guion .... 246 

The Unwins 223 

His Journal ....... 158 

Dr. Moore's opinion of his case . . . 109 

Dr. Cotton's judicious treatment of his malady . 109 

Account of him by Rev. J. Newton . . . 110 

His melancholy erroneously ascribed to Calvinism 141 
His activity in doing good . . . .111 



308 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Constitution of a person closely connected "with his 

religious frames . . : . . .83 
Illustrated in the case of the melancholy, timid, 

cheerful, bashful, and bold ... 83 

Counsel to the desponding sometimes attended with 

danger ....... 201 

Crook in the lot 117 

Church, Dr., his opinion on the power of faith to 

prevent and cure diseases . . . .284 

Confirmed by Doctor Bell 285 

Case of Mr. Shrubsole 285 

Opinion of Rev. Dr. Green 286 

Cumberland, Richard, his temperance . . . 255 
Cullen, Dr., on the bad effects of opiates . . 267 
Chrysostom, his opinion of grief .... 68 
Cyrus, remark of the astrologer concerning him . 85 

D. 

Dancing exercise 73 

"Dark side" — some persons look at no other . . 91 

David's language concerning his make ... 25 
David, subject to seasons of depression . . .36 
Davidson's, Dr., account of bodily exercises in the 

revivals in Kentucky 73 

Design of the author . . . . .28 

Depression, mental, periodical .... 96 

Case of Isaac Milner 100 

The sufferer cannot resist it .... 123 

Despair, temptation to ..... 189 

A symptom of bodily disease .... 189 

Christians led to it by perverted views of truth 189 

Leads to a neglect of the means of grace . . 190 

Never made a human being better . . . 191 

Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer . . . 191 

Despondency, religious, how to ascertain its real nature 201 
Descartes' opinion of medicine as an auxiliary to 

thought 218 

Of the seat of the mind . . . . .47 



INDEX. 



309 



PAGE. 

Desponding Christians, not easily convinced of the 



mistake concerning themselves . . . 113 
Such should pray for themselves, and seek an inte- 
rest in the prayers of others . . .287 
Case of Rev. Mr. Rogers 287 



Despondency aggravated by the irritation of food and 

drink ....... 50 

Decrees of Grod, Christians tempted to pry into them 190 

Dreams, dependent on our physical condition . 171 

Their effect on the brain .... 44 

Come through " the multitude of business" . 172 

Affected by the state of the stomach . . 171 

Case of Baron Trenck ..... 171 

Case of Condorcet — of Coleridge — of President 

Edwards 172 

Misapplied 173 

Case of an aged female ..... 173 

Of a young lady in England . . . . 173 

Of two clergymen mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie 175 

Shakspeare's description 177 

Diary, extract from a preacher's account of nervous 

females of his flock: 118 

Diaphragm, remark of a physician concerning dis- 
eases below it ...... 19 

Dietetic economy to be studied by persons subject to 

depression of spirits 235 

Diet, its effect on the moral faculty . . .231 

Digestion, organs of, connected with the mind . 43 
Diseases, why nervous do not more impair the physi- 
cal strength . . . . . .31 

Diseases, change of late in their character . . 208 

Diseases of the brain and nerves in England in 1856 209 

Diaries of some eminent Christians read with pain 158 

Few willing that survivors should see their own 159 



Drink, Dr. Johnson's opinion .... 231 

Disciples in the garden of Gethsemane ... 37 

Doctrine, the subject profitable for ... 115 

Dunglison, Dr. ....... 261 

Dod, Mr. 126 

Drugs, stimulating or stupefying . . . 267 



310 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Drugs, opinions of Drs. G-ood, Cullen, and Moore, 



how they operate on the body . . . 267 
Dyspepsia, Protean in its forms . . . .51 

Primarily a disease of the brain and nervous system 51 
Dryden's translation of Lucretius . .55 

Fable of Tityus 54 



His method to obtain swiftness of thought and 

nights of fancy 218 

E. 



Ease, lethargic, not to be indulged . . . 201 

Eastburn, Mr. Joseph, and Captain Wickes . . 223 

Eating, Dr. Holland's three rules . . . 237 

How much a man may eat . . . . 238 

Opinion of Dr. Hall 238 

Sedentary men eat too much .... 238 



Dr. Johnson's rule to enable each to decide for 

himself 240 

Habit of President Edwards . . . .240 
His remark concerning Brainerd's melancholy . 116 
His power of endurance and remarkable abstemi- 
ousness 240 

His opinion concerning dreams . . . 172 

Exercises, bodily, and the revival in Kentucky . 72 

Ireland . 77 

Exercise and air commended by all physicians . 270 

Exercise of body by certain Scotchmen . . 271 

The counsels of one who had been benefitted by it 273 

Excess converts food into poison .... 234 

Empiricism shows the power of imagination . . 77 
Empiricism, private, discouraged . . . .219 

Epileptic fits cured by fear ..... 63 

Esquirol ascribes Cowper's insanity to Calvinism . 141 
English writers, older, give prominency to subjects 

such as are treated in this work . . .198 
Enjoyment, spiritual, connected with the quality and 

amount of our food 255 



INDEX. 



311 



1. 

PAGE. 

Fathers, concurring with Paul on the prejudicial in- 
fluence of the body on the spirit . . .38 

Falling exercise mentioned by Dr. Davidson . . 72 

Francia, Dr., of Paraguay 96 

Frames, some Christians make too much of them . 177 

Case of Mrs. Hawkes 179 

Letter of Mr. Cecil 180 

Frames should be distinguished from principles . 180 
Familiarity with religion professional . . . 244 
Faith, its efficacy in the cure of diseases . . 284 
Fear, effect on four murderers in Russia . . 61 
Freedom from it, one cause of the safety of physi- 
cians in epidemic and contagious diseases . 62 
Curative efficacy in cases mentioned by Doctors 

Batchelder and Rush .... 62 
Preventive of the monomania which is the cause of 

so many murders 63 

Of epilepsy . . . . . . .63 

Case in New Hampshire 63 

Effect of Broussais' teachings .... 63 

Case of Dr. Hunter 64 

Of a female mentioned in the French Journal of 

Medicine, who became black from fear . . 65 
Of Marie Antoinette, whose hair became white in 

a single night ...... 65 

Of a Sepoy in the Bengal army .... 65 

Of the youth who robbed an eagle's nest . . 66 

Of the gambler at San Francisco ... 66 
Fears of having eaten and drunk damnation . .189 

Foolish course of many with their melancholy friends 124 

Food, men need more than women . . . 238 

care and discrimination in the choice of . . 254 

its effect 255 

Fluctuations, spiritual . . . . . .179 

Case of Mrs. Hawkes 179 

Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer ... 97 

Fuller, Andrew, depressed in mind on his death-bed 119 
Fulness of bread a predisposing cause of the vices of 

the Cities of the Plain 232 



312 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Galen . . . • . . .56 

Greenham's, old Mr., remark .... 114 

Green, Dr. Ashbel, his resolution not to do any harm 245 

His opinion on the causes of religious melancholy 130 
On excluding ministers from the chambers of the 

sick 286 

Grief, description of Father Chrysostom . . 68 

ofMelancthon .... 68 

Its effect on Philip of Spain .... 68 

Gloominess inconsistent with a regenerate state . 294 

Gout, cured by a paroxysm of fear ... 62 
Ghost, Holy, sin against — Father Austin's remark 

concerning it ...... 163 

Different opinions among the schoolmen concern- 
ing its nature . . . . . .164 

Good, Dr., on the bad effects of narcotics . . 267 

His opinion concerning the spleen ... 52 
Guthrie, Dr., his opinion of the change which takes 

place in Christians at the moment of death . 300 



H. 

Hair, turned white by fear 65 

Haygarth's, Dr., exposure of Perkins's tractors . 78 

Hall, Rev. Dr. James, case of melancholy . . 99 
Hall, Rev. Dr., extract from his sermon on the death 

of Dr. J. W. Alexander .... 296 

Hall, Dr., on air and exercise .... 268 

Cases of suffering mentioned by him . . . 226 

Harsh speeches do the desponding harm . . 125 
Happiness, domestic, often dependent on the biliary 

and digestive organs ..... 210 

Haley's Memoirs of Cowper imperfect and disingenuous 142 

Hawkes, Mrs., extract from her diary . . . 179 

Heads of great thinkers ..... 46 

Head of Bonaparte — of the insane — of Dean Swift 46 

Henry VIII. and Cardinal Woolsey ... 50 

Heart affected by the brain 51 

by the passion of love ... 58 



INDEX. 



313 



PAGE. 

Heart of Dr. Hunter, disease of . . .64 

Heart, Corvisart's lectures oh .... 64 

Heart disease, Testa's opinion .... 64 
Heart diseases common in Italy and France during 

the Revolution .... . . 64 



Heart-broken, cause of death of Philip V. of Spain 68 
Heart renewed, its exercises affected by the condition 

of the body 82 

Healthy persons cannot understand the feelings of 

those who are subject to nervous affections . 113 



Health, counsel to promote it . . . . . 253 
Health, bodily, connection between it and spiritual 

enjoyment ....... 82 

Henry VIII 50 

Hippocrates on melancholy ..... 56 
on temperance . . . . .230 

Hope, influence in curing disease .... 58 



Experience of surgeons in the army ... 59 
Patient of Dr. Rush, Austrian army ... 60 
Hope, M. D., Rev. M. B., case of religious melan- 
choly mentioned by him .... 211 
Holy Spirit's operation compared to work of a sculptor 84 
Homer, his account of Tityus .... 54 

Horace quoted 84, 127, 272 

Hunter, Dr., cause of his disease of heart . . 64 
Hufeland, Dr., commends the ancients . . . 224 
His opinion concerning infants that eat much ani- 
mal food 232 

Hypochondriac, meaning of the word analyzed . 56 



I. 



Imagination, power of 78 

Exemplified in the records of empiricism . . 77 
In Dr. Hay garth's wooden tractors . . .78 

In the experiment of Dr. Woodhouse . . . " 79 

Patient of Bartholini 79 

Case of Franciscus Borri ..... 79 

Case mentioned by Selden 80 

27 



314 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Idiosyncrasies 83 

Idiots in a Massachusetts' Charity . . . .35 
Insanity, not produced by religion .... 127 
Opinion of Dr. A. Alexander .... 127 
of Dr. George Moore . . . .129 
of Dr. Ashbel Green . . . .130 
of Dr. James Johnson .... 133 
of Dr. Abercrombie . . . .131 
of Burrowes, Cheyne, Combe . . . 132 
of Kirkbride, error exposed in a case re- 
ported by Dr. Kirkbride . . .135 
Irons, hot, and the epileptic patients ... 63 
Introspection, sometimes injurious to spiritual progress 182 
Ignorance of good men of things which affect their 

spiritual enjoyment ..... 199 
Remark on the subject by Dr. Cheyne . . 199 

J. 

James, the Apostle, his reproof of those who falsely 

ascribe their temptation to God . . . 162 

J erks, or J erking exercise in religion ... 73 

Cases described, involuntary .... 73 

Prayer, a sedative ...... 75 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, his translation of Thuanus . 246 

Johnson's, Dr. J., opinion concerning a broken heart 69 

concerning night studies 256 

on the best sort of drinks 231 
John the Evangelist's temperament — Dr. Mason's remark 86 

Job's history useful for caution .... 295 

J oy, its effect on a woman in New York ... 69 

on certain eminent men ... 69 

on a man in Richmond, Virginia . 70 

on the door-keeper of Congress in 1777 70 
J oys of heaven heightened by contrast with present 

affliction .296 

Juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst .... 35 
Juventius, said to have died of joy . . .69 
Justification and sanctifieation, the desponding must 

distinguish between them .... 284 



INDEX. 



315 



K. 

PAGE. 

Kant, could forget the pain of gout by an effort of 

thought 242 

Kemper, Mr., his remark about the unpardonable sin 165 
Knowledge of the subject especially important to cler- 



gymen and instructors of children . . .20 
L. 

Lackington, Mr., his delusion .... 169 
Lady of genius, her opinion of hepatic influence on 

her mind and spirits ..... 56 

Latin distich on preserving health .... 241 

Laughter, an aid to digestion ..... 224 

Lawrence, Dr., his system of materialism . . 40 
Leti G-regorius — his story of Jacob Morel and the 

Duke D'Ossuna . . . . . .79 

Leslie 272 

Life, its enjoyment dependent on the nervous system 31 

Liver, what its use ...... 53 

Influence on the temperament .... 54 

Passions and moral feelings .... 57 

Its affinities for that which is gloomy ... 54 

The cause inexplicable ..... 54 

The story of Tityus interpreted by Lucretius . 55 

Locke's opinion of the influence of association . . 220 

Love, the effect on the pulse ..... 58 

Lucretius ........ 55 

Lungs, affected by the brain . . . . .51 

Luther's, Martin, physical make .... 88 

Dr. Cox's remark concerning him ... 88 

Rev. Mr. Cecil's 86 

Luxurious habits of London — their influence , . 235 

M 

Manicheans of the third century, their mixture of 

Persian philosophy with Christianity . . 39 

Materialism ....... 40 



Madan's, Dr , mistake of the source of Cowper's malady 119 



316 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Mad, why worldly men, on becoming religious, are 

called madmen — Dr. Cheyne's reason . . 145 

Mab, Queen 177 

Mayn waring, Dr., his Tutela Sanitatis . . . 224 

His advice to his melancholy patients . . . 224 
MacNish, Dr., of Glasgow, on animal food . . 232 
McDuff's Dr., remarks on spiritual fluctuations . 94 
McNaughton, Dr., his remarks concerning the cases 

of bodily exercises in Ireland . . . .77 
Maladies, spiritual, not to be brooded over 244, 292 

Martyn, Henry, injured by overtasking his mind . 259 
Mason, Dr., his remark concerning Peter and John 86 
Medicine, why not more cultivated among the ancients 33 

The father of it born not less than 600 years be- 



fore Christ 33 

Medical relief in the case of a lady . . .211 

Medical advice recommended . . . .215 

Melancthon on the effect of grief .... 68 
Melancholy, meaning of the term .... 56 
Religious, case described . . 153, 211 
Wrong to nurture it . . .281 

Not to reason against it . . 202, 279 
Remark of Dr. Alexander . . . 202 
Case mentioned by Mr. Douglass . 202 

Melancholy Christians misjudged . . . .122 



The occasion of prejudice against religion . . 92 
Their sufferings often produced by physical causes 93 
Conceal their distress — case of Captain Wickes . 223 
Means of grace neglected by desponding Christians 190 
Mental disorder — four cases mentioned by the author 136 
Mind, power of a disquieted, in the case of a Neapo- 
litan merchant ...... 79 

Mind, affected by the organs of the body . . 46 

collapse of, occasioned by giving up business 240 
Ministers should understand the influence of physical 

causes ........ 113 

Miller, Rev. Dr. Samuel, on night study . . 257 

on the use of tobacco . 261 



INDEX. 



317 



PAGE. 

Milner, Rev. Isaac, his maladies more than forty years 100 
His letter to Mr Wilberforce . . . .101 

Mincio, battle of ...... 59 

Moral qualities hereditary . . . . .150 

Moral Therapeutics .... . . 81 

N. 

Narcotics, their injurious effects .... 266 

Nerves, derivation of the word .... 29 

Channels of communication between mind and body 29 
Omnipresence in the animal fabric ... 29 
Sensation caused by touching them ... 30 
Sympathy — Nervous System . . . .30 

Wonderful that they are not oftener deranged . 31 
Not mortify so soon as other parts of the body . 31 
Nervous force, its nature . . . . .31 

Not electric power . . . . . . 32 

Way of communication with brain and spinal mar- 
row, not known ...... 32 

Notion of Hippocrates and Galen . . .32 
Knowledge of this fact not important . . .32 
Morbid results of this connection ... 33 
Nervous diseases, the most numerous class . . 209 
How far we are accountable for the feelings they 

produce 150 

Newton, Rev. John, his remark to Cecil about Cowper 110 
Case of his wife ...... 138 

His remark on frames . . . . . 180 

Nitrous oxide and Professor Woodhouse . . .78 
Noonday prayer-meeting, and case of a clergyman . 153 

O. 

Orme's remark on the means of obtaining comfort in 

spiritual distress . . . . . .289 

Occupation needful to the desponding . . . 242 
Owen, Dr., on looking to Christ .... 283 

P. 

Paley, Archdeacon, on the spleen .... 52 
His remarks on the goodness of God, written 

under the pangs of the stone . . . 230 
27* 



318 



INDEX. 



Parental habits, effect on their offspring; . . 35 

Testimony furnished by prisons and almshouses . 35 

Paul, description of conflict between body and spirit 38 
Passions, power in disturbing the healthful action of 

the body 58 

Park and the flower in the desert .... 61 

Parish, Sir Woodbine, account of a gentleman exe- 
cuted for murder in Buenos Ayres . . .96 

His account of the north wind of Buenos Ayres 96 
Payson, Dr., his physical conformation and tendency 

to depression ...... 103 

Bemark concerning his biography . . .158 

His excessive abstinence ..... 233 

Prayer, desponding Christians afraid to pray . .189 

Paul the Apostle's method of promoting cheerfulness 225 

Paris, Dr., on the free use of animal food . . 232 

Page, Harlan 250 

Playfair 272 

Paul the Apostle, his temperament ... 86 

Phrenology ........ 40 

Presentiment of Dean Swift ..... 46 



Preachers, young, too many not qualified to direct 

the doubting conscience . . . - . 112 

Preachers, counsels of Dr. Rice to such as are trou- 



bled with mental depression .... 274 

Preaching, modern, a defect in . . . .113 

Pearson's, Mr., remark concerning Mr. Hay . . 157 
Peering inward on ourselves . . . 183, 283, 288 
Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk .... 271 

Peter, Simon, his natural temperament ... 85 
Pious men, why they should be permitted to fall into 

a state of mental darkness . . . .295 

No promises that insure them against such a trial 295 
Poring upon ourselves ...... 292 

Sentiments of Mr. Rogers ..... 287 

Providence, one of its deep mysteries . . . 294 
Plutarch's remark about the Boeotians . . . 255 
Of the reaction of the mind upon the body . . 218 
Physical evils mistaken for moral affections . .113 



INDEX. 



319 



Physical influence, doctrine of, capable of being 

perverted ....... 202 

Not intended to be an apology for sin, or perverse- 

ness of any sort ...... 147 

Physical influence, much in the doctrine to comfort 

the suffering . . . . . . .151 

May incite us to watch against our besetting sins 159 
Physicians, not every one competent to prescribe for 



the desponding ..... 206 

"What they can do ..... 207 

Too often ignorant of the reciprocal action of mind 

and body ....... 207 

Cannot read the book of the heart . \ . 207 

Need moral qualifications . . . . . 286 

R. 

Religion never causes insanity .... 127 
Rest of mind and body necessary .... 256 
Case of a theological student .... 257 
Ridgely, Dr., on the unpardonable sin . . . 167 
Rice, Dr. N. L., his excellent remarks . . . 274 
Rolling exercise, Dr. Davidson's account of .72 
Rogers, Rev. Timothy . . . . .114 
His description of religious melancholy . .114 
His advice about the choice of a physician . 208 
Several cases of religious despondency mentioned 

by him 222 

His instruction to the desponding to look to Christ 282 
His own relief in answer to prayer . . .287 
His book a monument of his deliverance . . 287 
His remarks on God's way of taking Christians to 

Heaven 298 

Rousseau's hypochondria, how promoted . .219 
Rush, Dr., his hopeful patient .... 60 
His Essay on the influences of physical causes on 

the moral faculty . . . . . 116 

His opinion that moral qualities are hereditary . 151 
On the free use of animal food . . . .231 



On the moral qualifications necessary for a physician 286 



320 



INDEX. 



PAGE" 

Rush, Dr., himself an instance of despondency with- 
out suspecting the cause .... 116 
Rutherford, his remark ..... 294 
RusseFs Seven Sermons, an extract from them . 168 
Running exercise in revivals, Dr. Davidson's account 73 



S. 

Sacred writings furnish little instruction concerning 

the union of soul and body . . . 35 

Sanctification to be distinguished from justification 284 

Savages know little of nervous diseases . . 33 

Saul, the king's, distressing affection ... 36 

Stackhouse, his opinion of Saul's case ... 36 
Saviour, the, recognizes the influence of the natural 

over the spiritual part . . . . . 37 

Stratonice loved by Antiochus . . . . 58 

Shame, case mentioned by Rev. Dr. Baker . . 70 
Satanic agency, mistake of imputing to it what is 

dependent on bodily disease . . . 162 
Case of Rev. John Newton's wife . . . 138 
Cases of Bunyan and Martin Luther . . 139 
Standard of piety, to adopt one that is false, a temp- 
tation of desponding Christians . . . 169 
Shakspeare quoted . . . 50, 87, 162, 177 
Seneca quoted ...... 225 

Shakspeare's account of dreaming . . . 177 
Self-examination, does not always aid us in obtaining 

comfort from guilt ..... 289 

Spleen, what its use — opinion of Dr. Good . . 52 

Opinion of Archdeacon Paley . .' . . 52 

Supposed connection with low spirits . . 52 

Selden's Table-Talk 80 

Secretary of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris 120 
Reproof of his medical brethren for looking at the 

organic effects of disease instead of its cause 121 

Sleep, M. Guizot's faculty for .... 258 



INDEX. 



321 



PAGE. 

Science, its testimony to the reciprocal influence of 

mind and body ...... 39 

Sin, unpardonable, opinion about it since the Re- 
formation . . . . . . .164 

In many cases the fear of having committed it a 
symptom of bodily disease . ... 165 

Case of a young man who for twelve years sup- 
posed himself to be guilty of it . . . 166 
Scripture, sudden recurrence of alarming passages 

often misused ...... 169 

Spiritual desertion imagined .... 186 

Spirituality of mind not necessarily connected with 

theological studies ..... 244 

Spiritual depression periodical . . . .95 

Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 97 

Of Mr. Cecil 99 

Of a venerable clergyman .... 100 

Spirits, low, Dr. Rice's opinion concerning the cause 274 
Swift, Dean, his mental imbecility in latter part of 

his life 47 

Soul, known only by its attributes or qualities . 26 

Soul, its history marvellous . . . . .26 
Stomach, its action on the mind .... 48 
Sophocles, said to have died of excessive joy . . 69 
Society, suitable, recommended .... 220 
Schoolmen of the Middle Ages . . . .164 
Solomon on cheerfulness ..... 230 
Smoking produces cancer in the mouth . . 265 

Affection of the heart ..... 261 
Shuttleworth, Mr. Kay, his examination of the juve- 
nile delinquents at Parkhurst . . .35 
Sufferers from depression not able to apply the truth 

their case requires — Case of Dr. Rush . . 116 
Case of Rev. Thomas Boston . . . 117 

Case of Rev. Thomas Scott .... 119 

Subject of this book useful for correction . . 127 
Superstition, cause of insanity . . . .130 
Sunshine, perpetual, not to be expected . . 160 

Sufferers mentioned by Dr. Hall - 226 



322 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Study at unseasonable hours .... 256 

Opinion of Dr. James Johnson . . . 256 
Of the author of a Doctor's Manual for the 

Nervous ..... 256 

Case of a theological student . . . 257 

Opinion of Dr. S. Miller ... 257 

Sympathy in the organs of the body . . 30 

The fact well known ... 49 

Sympathy of the mind defined . . .71 

Exemplified in yawning, wheezing, asthma, cough 72 

Sympathy, morbid and imitative . . 72 

Physical effects seen in revivals of religion . 73 

Its power illustrated in the success of empiricism 77 

Sympathy, too little felt for persons subject to ner- 
vous affection ...... 124 

Sydenham's estimate of the proportion of fevers to 

other diseases ...... 209 

Dr. Cheyne's estimate . . . . .209 

Estimate of Trotter 209 



T. 

Talma, died of excessive joy . . . . .69 
Tampering with drugs discouraged . . .219 

Rousseau's confession in regard to himself . . 219 
Treatises on kindred subjects numerous ... 20 
Temptations of the desponding .... 162 

The power of temptation derived from ourselves . 144 
Temptation of some to think that they have commit- 
ted the sin against the Holy Ghost . . . 163 
Temptation of the desponding to watch their fluc- 
tuating frames . . . . . .177 

Case of Rev. Richard Baxter .... 288 

Remarks of Mr. Orme 289 

Treatises on the subject of this volume not called for 

by many . . . . . ... 198 

Temperance ........ 230 

Tsedium vitse, a panacea for . . . . . 247 



INDEX. 



323 



PAGE. 

Tityus, the fable concerning him explained . . 55 
Tobacco, its injurious effects ..... 259 
Candidate for the ministry rejected for using it . 260 
Resolution of a Methodist Conference . . 260 

Case of Rev. Mr. Bull . ... 260 

King James the First, his Counterblast against 

Tobacco 260 

Edict against it in the time of Elizabeth . . 260 
Case mentioned by Dr. Dunglison . . . 261 
Sentiments of Rev. Dr. Miller . . . .261 
Excessive use of it by theological students . .261 
A sin against our neighbour .... 264 
Deaths in G-ermany caused by its use . . 265 

Its effect on the mind, as shown in the case of the 

pupils of the Polytechnic school in Paris . 266 
Its effect on the mouth in causing cancer . . 265 

U. 



Unpardonable sin . . . . . . . 163 

Uses of knowledge on the subject of this book for 

doctrine ....... 115 

Urquhart injured by excessive study . . .258 



y. 

Virgil, quoted . . . . . .55 

Vows . . . 148 

W. 

Waterloo, case of a soldier wounded there . . 43 

Watchfulness against melancholy .... 281 
Water, the best drink according to Hippocrates and 

Dr. Johnson 231 

Watts, his remark concerning the disappointments of 

heaven ....... 299 

Wellington, Lord, his physical constitution . . 88 

Wretchedness of a state of spiritual despondency . 151 

Wind, north, its effect in Buenos Ayres . . 96 

Wife, deranged, mentioned by a minister of London 145 



324 



INDEX. 



Wickes, Captain, a case of prolonged melancholy . 222 
White, Henry Kirke, depressions of mind . . 258 
Writings, sacred, why give so little instruction on the 

subject of this volume ..... 35 
They contain exemplifications of its truth . . 36 
Woodhouse, Dr., his experiment to show the power 

of imagination . . . . . . 78 

Words, power of kind . • . . .127 
Work on the subject of this volume called for . 28 
Woolsey, Cardinal .50 



Z. 

.^immermann, Dr., his account of the death of Philip V. 

of Spain 68 



THE END. 



MAN, MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 



SECOND EDITION, 

EEVISED AND ENLAEGED. 

Man, Moral and Physical; or, Influence of Health 
and Disease on Eeligious Experience. By Rev. J oseph 
H. Jones, D. D. 12mo. $1 00. Bevelled, red edges, 
$1.25. 

NOTICES OF THE WOEK. 

From Rev. William B. Sprague, D. D. 

I have examined, with great pleasure, Dr. Jones' late work on 
"The Influence of Health and Disease on Eeligious Experience," 
and hare no doubt that it is destined, as it is certainly adapted, to 
produce very important results in aid of an intelligent, healthful, 
cheerful spirituality. It is evidently the result of a vast amount of 
both reading and thinking. It not only presents its positions in a 
most luminous and impressive manner, but brings a great cloud of 
unexceptionable witnesses to confirm them. Every minister of the 
gospel should be familiar with the book, that he may know when to 
recommend it to others, or be able to avail himself of it in his pas- 
toral intercourse. 

Medical men may be instructed by it in respect to many cases in 
which they are called to administer. And to those whom it more 
especially contemplates, it will come as a physician to both body 
and soul. 

I have no hesitation in pronouncing it one of the most important 
religious works which this country has produced. It is a moment- 
ous subject, treated with almost matchless skill and discrimination. 
I would rather be the author of " Man, Moral and Physical," than 
of almost any book that has been published in this country for 
years. 

From Rev. T. W. J. Wylie, D. D. 

I have read this work with great interest, and I trust with much 
personal advantage. In this age, and in our own country especially, 
a treatise of this kind was very much needed. To take care of the 
body, for the sake of the soul, is a duty as little understood and 
attended to as it is unspeakably important. Drawing on the rich 

A 1 



resources of theological, literary, and medical knowledge, Dr. Jones 
indicates what judgment we should form of various mental exer- 
cises of a religious character, and how we may best promote the 
normal action of each part of man's " fearfully and wonderfully 
made" organism. 

How many drooping spirits may be revived and comforted, and 
how many who are unconsciously erring, may be led into a proper 
course, by this excellent volume ! It is a messenger of consolation 
and instruction, and as such, I wish it a large circulation. 

From Rev. J. W. Yeomans, D. D. 

It is but lately that I have been able to read this work of Dr. Jones 
with the attention it merited. The book is destined, I trust, to do 
great good. Its facts are wisely selected, and so skilfully arranged 
and stated, as to be engaging to read and convenient for reference. 
Though its cases are chiefly extremes, and more strongly marked 
than any which a Christian minister will often meet, they present 
the types of mental states found under the milder aspects of partial 
development almost everywhere. 

Dr. Jones has here made a most valuable collection of those intri- 
cate and painful phenomena in religious physiology, in the history 
of which every theological student and minister of the gospel should 
be as thoroughly instructed as in any other branch of Christian 
knowledge. 

From Rev. William Mill, D. D. 

A readable and delightful book. It is a beautiful contribution to 
our family literature. 

From the Biblical Repertory. 

The author has not written for professional men as a class, yet the 
lucid, polished, terse, vigorous, classical style, the profuse illustra- 
tion of principles, by striking facts, and its literary and religious 
attractions, combine to make it interesting and instructive to any 
intelligent mind. The work will be a standard with those who can 
appreciate its value, and, so far as we have learned, is the only one 
in the English language expressly devoted to this subject. 

From the New York Observer. 

This book is not philosophical, nor medical, nor technical, but 
practical — illustrated by a thousand facts, remarkably interesting 
and entertaining — tending to show how much the physical health 
has to do with the state of the mind. Scores of men lose their reli- 
gious hopes by dyspepsia, and hundreds go mourning all their days 
because their liver is out of order. The book ought to be a great 
blessing to the Church. 

From the Presbyterian Magazine. 

There were three things indispensable as qualifications for writing 
this book: 1. A thorough knowledge of the constitution of man, 

2 



moral and physical. 2. A knowledge of the diseases to which flesh 
is heir, both scientific and experimental. 3. The highest of all 
species of knowledge — an experimental and saving acquaintance 
with the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That the 
author possesses these qualifications in an eminent measure, is fully 
attested by the present work. He has brought to the task the 
resources of a thorough discipline, acquired in the schools of human 
science, at the feet of Jesus, and in the furnace of affliction. The 
Church, and especially her children of affliction, owe Dr. Jones a 
debt of deep and lasting gratitude, for supplying, in so able a man- 
ner, what has long been felt to be an aching void. It is eminently 
a book for the afflicted; but it is one Avhich all may read with profit. 
The ministry will find it to be a valuable aid in their attendance 
upon the sorrowing sons and daughters of affliction; and private 
Christians, who enjoy the inestimable blessing of health, should 
procure it, to fit them for the trials that may yet await them, and 
qualify them for ministering to those upon whom the shadows have 
already fallen. 

From the Christian Intelligencer. 

The subject of this work is of vast importance, and little under- 
stood, even by many veteran ministers. The author has made the 
subject a study for many years, with the advantage of a medical 
education added to his extensive theological and literary acquire- 
ments, and a large experience as a physician of souls. The book is 
designed for ministers, theological students, and private Christians. 
It deals with facts, principles and experiences, and is filled with 
wise counsels to the afflicted and to their spiritual advisers. It is, 
we believe, the only distinct work in the English language devoted 
to this branch of Chsistian casuistry; and it is such a work as could 
be written only by one who possesses the peculiar facilities of the 
excellent author. "We have good books on religious experience, but 
they deal chiefly with the spiritual side, giving only occasional 
hints of physical causes, which frequently underlie the most dis- 
tressing, insoluble cases. 

Having read the book very carefully, we confidently commend it 
to all ministers and students of theology, as an invaluable addition 
to the treatises on pastoral duties, and to all intelligent Christians, 
not forgetting our brethren of the medical profession, whose services 
to the sick might often be helped by a proper understanding of the 
spiritual maladies of their patients. 

From the American Presbyterian. 

This is a treatise of great practical value. A sound mind in a 
sound body is a great desideratum. The intimate relation and 
mutual influence of mind and body are too little understood. Many 
of our bodily pains and ailments are caused by the indiscretion and 
carelessness of the spiritual tenement of this earthly tabernacle; 
and equally true is it, that the disordered tenement contributes mar- 
vellously to the disquiet and discomfort of its inhabitant. This 
volume ably and judiciously discusses this subject, and shows that 
physical exercise or medicine is oftentimes a more potent remedy 

3 



for depressed spirits and religious melancholy, than the pious and 
spiritual counsels of the pastor. The causes and remedies are wisely 
discussed, and appropriate counsel given to guide the sufferer or his 
spiritual adviser. 

The book commends itself to pastors, to students, and to invalids. 
It abounds in valuable practical suggestions, and its positions are 
illustrated by a variety of facts and incidents. It embodies just the 
kind of knowledge that everybody ought to possess on this impor- 
tant subject. 

From the Congregationalist. 

We regard the work as one of great importance. In this semi- 
sick world, a vast amount of religious depression and misgiving is 
directly traceable to bodily ailment; and the careful reading of this 
volume, we have no doubt, will afford unspeakable comfort to many 
who may imagine that they have committed the sin against the 
Holy Ghost, when they have only been treacherous far too long to 
nature's laws, and are paying the penalty in aching heads and 
feeble nerves. 



From the Christian Observer. 

The union of man's physical with his moral powers, and the 
influences of disease on his religious emotions and hopes, are the 
subjects which the author has illustrated in this able and valuable 
work. It contains the results of extensive research and patient 
study of an important subject, little understood, even by those who 
have grown old as spiritual guides in the service of the Church. It 
is a book of facts, and principles, and experiences, which show how 
the maladies of that great organ (called the nerves) affect the mind, 
exhibiting the mysterious bond of sympathy between our physical 
and moral nature. 

Our attention was called to this subject many years since, by a 
perusal of the lectures of Dr. Rush on the diseases of the mind, and 
subsequent observations have confirmed our views of the great 
importance of a work illustrating this subject. The volume before 
us is the only book known to us in which the subject is treated at 
length, accompanied with salutary counsels to the afflicted; and it 
affords us pleasure to commend it to ministers, and students, and 
private Christians, as a valuable guide to aid them in understand- 
ing the spiritual maladies of our nature. 

From the Presbyterian Banner and Advocate. 

This is a book greatly needed, as all who have had much ex- 
perience as pastors will testify, after it has been read. Drs. Archi- 
bald and James W. Alexander urged Dr. Jones to the preparation of 
this work, both for the benefit of Christians of unequal and fluc- 
tuating experience, and to furnish a hand-book for theological stu- 
dents and young preachers, to whom the experience and counsels of 
one of their seniors may be of unspeakable advantage. 

To many desponding Christians it will bring great relief; it will 
greatly aid pastors in giving proper advice; and all will be profited 

4 



by its perusal. It fills a place not supplied by any other work in 
the English language. 



From the Pacific Expositor. 

As almost nothing has been written on this subject, Dr. Jones 
has the whole field before him comparatively unoccupied. The 
subject is confessedly one of great importance, and deserves to be 
more thoroughly studied by spiritual teachers. There are cases 
when the legal and medical professions come together. The medical 
faculty has to decide on cases of insanity, and say how far blows, 
and wounds, and poisons, have caused death. And so, also, there is 
a medical jurisprudence, and there should be, and there is, a juris- 
prudence moral and medical. And so also do the clerical and 
medical professions lap over sometimes upon each other's territory. 
It may have happened that a blue pill was more needful than a 
pastor's prayer, or a copy of the Saint's Rest; and so, on the other 
hand, we are very certain we have had parishioners who were more 
in need of a cheerful countenance and spiritual consolation than of 
leeches. The truth is, man is emphatically a microcosm. He 
combines so much that is physical, mental, and moral, that it 
requires much experience, as well as close observation and profound 
learning, to be either a good pastor or a safe medical adviser. 
Dr. Jones exhibits much learning, mature experience, pastoral ten- 
derness, and scholarly attainments, in the preparation of this 
volume. Every judicious pastor will thank him for putting such a 
work before the public. 

From the Presbyter. 

The suggestions given are characterized by sound sense as well as 
intelligent piety. The book is abundant in illustrations of anecdote 
and incident, and would be read with interest apart from its value 
as bearing upon the subject discussed. Its circulation would go far 
to correct some erroneous impressions which often prevail in regard 
to Christian experience, and at the same time to prevent a great 
deal of needless mental suffering. 

From the Missionary. 

The influence of health and disease on piety is too little under- 
stood by Christians generally, and especially by ministers of the 
gospel. A sound mind, in a sound body, is a blessing inconceivably 
great, and intimately connected with all the issues of a healthful 
Christianity. The truth is, in spite of ourselves, we think of pills, 
and powders, and blue mass, when we hear the religious experience 
of some men, just as we think of dyspepsia and liver complaint 
when we hear some sermons, which are very learned and methodi- 
cal, and all that, but are morbid to a mournful degree. The writer, 
therefore, who throws additional light on the laws of physical and 
mental health, and their relation to our spiritual nature, is a bene- 
factor of his race. This, Dr. Jones has done, in a very satisfactory 
manner in the volume before us, and we commend its perusal alike 
to our ministers and laymen, as a truly interesting and instructive 
work on a subject of vital importance. 

A* 5 



NOTES ON SCRIPTURE. 



By Joel Jones, LL.D., with an Introduction by the Kev. 
Robert J. Breckinridge, D. D. 8vo. $2.50. 

NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

This is one of the most clear, able, and satisfactory expositions of 
Scripture which it has been our privilege to read. The author was 
evidently a man of no ordinary attainments in either literary, scien- 
tific, or theological lore; and he most happily avails himself of his 
vast resources in these different departments in his Commentary. 
He writes as one who had a personal interest in the themes dis- 
cussed, and like one who desired to understand, and make the reader 
understand, what is revealed; and at the same time carefully avoid 
speculation on things hidden. — Presbyterian Witness. 

The author was a lawyer, and for many years a Judge, and his 
notes, partly historical and partly expository, show a high degree of 
acuteness, and some originality. Especially his notes on the Trial 
and Crucifixion of Christ are valuable, viewed as they are from the 
author's peculiar position as a member of the legal profession. The 
book is a valuable contribution to theological literature. — Zion's 
Herald. 

A volume of Scripture annotations from such a source must be 
possessed of valuable qualities; and this we find to be the case after 
but a partial reading and examination. The juridical habits of the 
author are plainly discernible throughout the whole of his work. 
There is to be found minute and careful investigation of the meaning 
of the Divine record; constant appeals to Scripture for its own inter- 
pretation; stern deductions from actual facts; respectful and fair con- 
sideration of the opinions of other interpreters; and calmness and 
clearness in stating his own, such as might be expected from one 
who for years had occupied the position of President Judge in a court 
of law. These qualities, combined with deep piety and unostenta- 
tious learning, have produced a volume worthy to be read and 
studied. — Banner of the Covenant. 

Upon examination, this work has very much grown upon our 
estimation — is uncommonly suggestive, learned, and fresh — alto- 
gether one of the most important of recent contributions made to 
Commentaries on the Gospels; especially valuable to clergymen, 
whether they agree with some of his views or not. — Central Presby- 
terian. 

The author was not only a ripe Christian, but was a rare theolo- 
gian. He studied the Bible in its original tongues, and with all the 
best critical aids, daily. The matured views of such a man are a 
valuable legacy to the Church. The very fact that he brought to 
his study of the Scriptures the most thorough legal knowledge, will 
add great value to his exposition of many passages. His views 
were not hastily formed, or taken at second hand, but the result of 
patient, original investigation, by a mind of great native vigour, 
highly cultivated, and under the controlling influence of a reveren- 
tial and child- like faith. Doubtless there are passages in these Notes 
to which we might not subscribe; but we are sure that no more 
valuable and suggestive work on the Gospels, has been written in 
this country. — Christian Herald. 



A BOLD WORK, 

THE STARS AND THE ANGELS. 

1 vol. 12mo. $1.25. 

NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

We Have seldom opened a book which we Have found it more 
difficult to lay aside. THe tHemes are of surpassing interest — tHe 
geology of tHe sun, How stars may be kindled, celestial cHemistry, 
tHe spiritual body, pkysiology of tHe spirit, demoniacal possessions, 
angelic bodies, and kindred topics. We Have never seen tHese 
subjects treated witH tHe same ingenuity and apparent truthful - 
ness. — Presbyterian. 

THe book is bound to be read. THe autHor's speculations are bold, 
sometimes startling, yet care is exercised to keep witbin tbe line of 
wbat is probable and known. THe chapter on the "Physiology of 
tHe Spirit" must be considered as marked by mucb ability, and witb 
a thorough consideration of, and acquaintance witH, tHe Scriptures 
on tHe subject. — Baaner of the Cross. 

A volume of singular merit, and in many respects a remarkable 
book. WitH extensive knowledge of science, and a profound 
respect for tHe Christian religion, tHe author is a bold speculator, 
and astonisbes as well as instructs. — American Presbyterian. 

THe object of tbis book is to sbow wbat tbe teachings of the Bible 
and science are, with reference to the earth and all the planets 
and stars, involving the nature of angels, demons, the devil, and 
also men after death. It is not excessively fanciful, as is apt to be 
the case with such books, but sober, philosophical, and scriptural. 
THe autHor uses language perspicuously, and his views certainly 
commend themselves to our favour. He thinks that angels are 
possessed of bodies, demons are destitute of them, and that the 
righteous after death are like the angels. He exhibits a good 
acquaintance with both science and Scripture, of one of which the 
majority of writers on these subjects betray an ignorance. — Zion's 
Herald. 

This work displays great compass of mind, vast research in 
physical science, and rigid adherence to the authority of Scripture. 
THe author's observations on demoniacal possession and inspiration, 
the nervous system, mesmerism and spirit-rapping, the resurrec- 
tion of Christ and his people, the second coming of Christ, and the 
employments of the redeemed after the resurrection, are all upon 
themes which are treated with ability. He is a bold thinker, and 
close reasoner, and yet humble in spirit. His theories may have 
more truth in them than the majority of Christians at the present 
day are ready to receive. — Presbyterian Witness. 

This small volume contains a large amount of interesting and ex- 
citing thought. It discourses upon subjects of high import with 
intelligence and with rare self-possession. THe author appears to 



be a man of science as well as a devout believer in the authority 
of the sacred Scriptures upon all subjects upon which they speak. 
Some of his views, which are new to us, appear probable, while 
some of them do not; but in either case they deserve attention, 
fitted as they are, to enlarge the field of profitable speculation, and 
to suggest thoughts that "wake to perish never." On the subject of 
angelic natures, which he regards as embodied spirits, and of 
devils, which he regards as spirits destitute of a body, and upon the 
general subject of the body which the soul enters at death and the 
body which it is to have at the resurrection, the author's arguments 
and speculations are bold, but calm, and in themselves highly 
interesting. "We do not endorse all his opinions, but the book as a 
whole we commend to our readers, as one worthy of careful study, 
and one which those who read it will long remember. — Boston 
Recorder. 



REV. DR. BOARDMAN'S HYMN-BOOK. 

First Edition Exhausted in Two Weeks. 

THIRD EDITION NOW READY. 

A Selection of Hymns — Designed as a Supplement to 
the Psalms and Hymns of the Presbyterian Church. By 
the Rev. Hi A. Boardman, D. D. 1 vol. 16mo. 

Arabesque, . . . . . . $0 60 

Arabesque, gilt edges, . . . . 0 75 

Morocco, plain, . . . . 1 25 

Morocco, gilt, . . . . . 1 50 

Turkey, plain, . . . . . 1 75 

Turkey, gilt or antique, . . . . 2 00 

Turkey, flexible, . . . . . 2 25 

Turkey, flexible, ribbon edges (new style,) . 2 25 

From the Preface. 

Nearly twenty years have elapsed since the publication of the 
Book of "Psalms and Hymns," now in general use in our Church. 
Within this period the Hymnology of the Church has been enriched 
by numerous original contributions of great merit, and by copious 
translations from the devotional poetry of other languages. Many 
of the old Greek and Latin Hymns are now for the first time made 
accessible to the English reader; and he is admitted into that great 
storehouse of German Hymnology, the wealth of which is perhaps 
without a parallel. The feeling has come to be very prevalent, that 

8 



these treasures should be brought within the reach of the American 
churches. Of this we have decisive evidence in the new Collections 
of Hymns prepared for the Congregational, the Protestant Episco- 
pal, the Lutheran, and other denominations. The same demand 
exists in our own communion; and is more likely to increase than 
diminish, since it has the sympathy of many prominent pastors and 
laymen in various parts of the Church. 

In the feeling here referred to, the present volume had its origin. 
After much deliberation it was decided to arrange the work as a 
"Supplement" to our Church Book." The Hymns in our book, 
therefore, are excluded, with a single exception. 

FOR FAMILY WORSHIP. 

In the present volume, a large space has been allotted to Hymns 
suited to Family Worship; not larger, however, it is believed, than 
is demanded by the growing disposition to combine praise with the 
reading of the Scriptures and prayer, at the domestic altar. 

FOR SCHOOLS. 

These Hymns, it will be seen, on examination, are also appropri- 
ate to Boarding and Day Schools, which open or close the day with 
sacred song. 

FOR PRIVATE DEVOTION. 

Under the head of Private Devotion, there will be found a choice 
variety of Hymns adapted to the closet ; many of which, as being of 
irregular or unusual metres, are designed for reading only. 

SOURCES OF THIS COLLECTION. 

Of the sources which have supplied the materials for the present 
collection, it is proper to say, that these five hundred Hymns have 
been winnowed out of several thousand, scattered through an inde- 
finite variety of Hymn-Books and other publications. Several of 
them appear now in a Hymn-Book for the first time. 

DESIGN OF THE WORK. 

In the preparation of this volume, the compiler has had a special 
eye to the wants of his own pulpit and people. He is not without 
the hope that it may prove an acceptable offering to some other 
congregations, and to private Christians. 



NOTICES OF THE WORK. 

From the New York Observer. 

An examination will show how pure, and elevated, and genial, 
has been the taste, how wise and discriminating the judgment, and 
large the industry with which these sacred songs have been com- 
piled. The compiler has done a great and good work by giving us, 
in full, and without alteration, those precious poems, to be read or 

9 



sung, which have been getting hold on the affections of the Chris- 
tian people, some for ages, some for a few years past, and there is 
scarcely an occasion of social, private, or public interest, scarcely a 
frame of feeling, scarcely a time or season for which there is not 
something beautifully appropriate, and tenderly fitting. In the 
family, the prayer-meeting, and the house of God, it will be prized 
the more it is employed. 

From the Presbyterian Expositor. 

The arrangement of this volume is easy and convenient, fitting it 
well for either private, family, social or congregational worship. 
The index gives the authorship of the hymns. Some of them are 
intended more for reading than singing. Indeed, it has seemed to 
us from the examination we have given, that, aside from singing 
altogether, and regarding this volume simply as a book of poetry, 
it will be difficult to find any thing in the way of sacred, evangeli- 
cal poetry, more readable and attractive. Many of the rarest gems 
of sacred thought and diction to be found in our language, are 
brought together and gracefully set, in this casket. 

From the Christian Intelligencer. 

The compiler of this fine collection of Hymns is the Eev. Henry 
A. Boardman, D. D , whose qualification for the work is well attested 
by the arrangement and collation of the volume. The range of 
topics, the elevated tone of devotional feeling, the admirable taste 
of the compiler, the numerous versions of "ancient hymns," the 
precious songs of our modern sacred poets, and the adaptation to the 
varied wants of the church, the school, and the home, with the full 
indices and tables of contents, make this a valuable addition to our 
stores of Christian hymnology. The book is beautifully "gotten 
up" by the publishers. 

From the Presbyterian. 

This collection of Hymns has been carefully prepared, and em- 
braces many beautiful ones, of which the Christian public should 
not be deprived. The pulpit, the lecture-room, and the family may 
avail themselves with profit of this rich treasury of Christian song. 

From the Christian Banner and Advocate. 

This selection is especially rich in Hymns for family and private 
devotion, and on this account, as well as for many other reasons, it 
will be eagerly sought Everywhere throughout its pages the good 
judgment and sound discretion of Dr. Boardman may be seen, whilst 
pervading the whole we notice the exquisite musical taste of another 
member of his family, whose attention has been for years lovingly 
directed to this work. 

10 



THE BIBLE HAND-BOOK. 



FIFTH EDITION NOW READY. 

The Bible Hand-book. An Introduction to the 
Study of Sacred Scripture. By Joseph Angus, D. D. 
1 vol. 12mo. $1.25. 



From the Chicago Herald. 

This new book, intended to assist in the study of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, is more comprehensive than any book we have seen of its 
nature; being very much condensed, without producing obscurity; 
it is emphatically "multum in parvo," and substantially supplies 
the place of a library on the subjects which it treats. Every Bible 
reader very much needs such a book for reference, in order to make 
intelligent and definite progress. It does not supply the place of a 
Bible dictionary, but covers much other ground, of almost, if not 
quite equal importance. The book is one of great practical value to 
all Bible students. 

From the London Record. 

We have sincere pleasure in calling attention to this truly admir- 
able book. We felt confident beforehand that a work issued under 
such auspices would be marked by a devotional spirit, and by 
doctrinal purity and simplicity. But in the compass of its subjects, 
and the scholarly manner in which they have been handled, it far 
exceeds our expectations. To the superintendents of our Sunday- 
schools, and to the more educated class of teachers, to tutors or 
governesses in private families, and to young persons in general, the 
book will be invaluable. Nor need students of another character, 
who are reading for the ministry, fear to take it up under any im- 
pression that it is of too popular a character for them. It is vigorous 
throughout — clear, condensed, admirably arranged, and rich in mat- 
ter, as solid in character as it is devout in spirit. The immense 
amount of matter condensed in comparatively so small a compass, 
has compelled the author to give on many points ratber the heads 
of arguments than the arguments themselves. But in these cases 
he has very wisely added lists of authors, in whose pages a more 
enlarged or exact information may be sought. 

When we mention that the book deals with the whole range of 
subjects tbat are included in "Home's Introduction," our readers 
will see that it is really wbat it professes to be — a Hand-book — out of 
the stores of which the devout believer may furnish himself with 
weapons suitable to the peculiar controversies of the day. The 
special class of difficulties with which the modern nationalist school 
so earnestly labours to unsettle the faith of the weak and unlearned 
Christian, has naturally received prominent attention, and before 
the clear, decided statements of Dr. Angus, they shrink into their 
proper insignificance by the side of the grand edifice of revealed 
truth that they seek to undermine. 



SCOTT'S COMMENTARY, 



NEW AND ELEGANT EDITION. 



In Five Volumes, quarto, printed on large type, and 
neatly bound. 

In sheep, $12 50 

In half calf, 15 00 



The capital excellency of this valuable and immense undertaking, 
perhaps, consists in following more closely than any other, the fair 
and adequate meaning of every part of Scripture, without regard to 
the niceties of human systems. It is, in every part of the expres- 
sion, a Scriptural Comment. It has, likewise, a further and a strong 
recommendation in its originality. Every part of it is thought out 
by the author himself, not borrowed from others. Further, it is the 
comment of our age, presenting many of the last lights which his- 
tory casts on the interpretation of prophecy, giving several of the 
remarks which sound criticism has accumulated from the different 
branches of sacred literature, obviating the chief objections which 
modern annotators have advanced against some of the distinguished 
doctrines of the gospel, and adapting the instructions of Scripture to 
the peculiar circumstances of the times in which we live. Accord- 
ingly, the success of the work has been rapidly and steadily increas- 
ing, wherever the English language is known. — Bishop Wilson. 

The Eev. Thomas Hartwell Home, author of "The Introduction 
to the Critical Study of the Scriptures," remarks, in reference to the 
above notice, that "To the preceding just character of this elaborate 
Commentary, the writer of this deems it an act of bare justice to 
state, that he has never consulted it in vain on difficult passages of the 
/Scriptures." 

Already one hundred thousand copies of this work have been 
sold, and the constant and increasing sale proves the high estima- 
tion in which it is deservedly held. The present edition is superior 
to any that has yet been issued, not only having all the author's 
final corrections, but also a number of useful Tables, a Concord- 
ance, Family Record, &c, together with the advantages of large 
type and substantial binding. 

Ministers and Congregations, when purchasing in quanti- 
ties, will be supplied upon very liberal terms, which will be made 
known upon application to the publishers, 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 

No. 606 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 



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